Is there really something like an earth-friendly website with a reduced carbon footprint? And if a website isn’t a real, tangible thing, how can it be bad for the environment? Hard as it may be to imagine, something completely virtual CAN have an impact on the environment. And yes, unless you actively work on it, you website can give off carbon emissions!
Did you know that the Internet contributes to 2% of global carbon emissions? It might not sound like much, but it’s equal to the greenhouse-gas emissions produced by the aviation industry!
And now you’re listening…
The reason why websites give off carbon emissions comes down to the devices we use to surf the web and the server and data centers that store websites and hold the web’s content. You can learn more about the details by checking out this infographic.
Today, we’ll be diving into some simple steps you can take to make your website earth-friendly. However, let’s start by answering a question you’ve probably got burning in the back of your mind:
Why Are Environmentally Friendly Websites Important?
Sustainable living has been a hot topic for more than a decade, and more and more of us are actively trying to minimize our impact on the environment. From changing their diets to building eco-friendly homes known as Earth ships, people are expanding the opportunities when it comes to environmentally-friendly lifestyles. But rarely are these initiatives applied to websites and the Internet at large.
In early 2016, the IT sector contributed to roughly 7% of global electricity use, and by 2019, there were more than 4.3 billion active internet users in the world. And for that reason, it’s important to take measures to reduce the impact the web has on the climate and environment.
What Are the Advantages of an Eco-Friendly Website?
There are numerous benefits involved when you go green with your website, not just for your business, but for your customers as well. If you’re keen to act against climate change, transitioning to a more environmentally-friendly website is one of the first steps you can take to reduce your personal carbon footprint.
Studies also indicate that consumers are becoming more environmentally concerned, making them more likely to engage with brands that care about the topic as well. Plus, when you run your site in more eco-friendly ways, it can congruent more user-friendliness and increased site quality, improving your success in the marketplace.
But Why Aren’t More People Greenifying Their Websites and Turning to Renewable Energy Solutions for IT?
You’re probably wondering why most websites aren’t eco-friendly already. After all, it’s a step in the right direction, right?
The problem is that many people don’t know where to start. Some feel like they lack the technical know-how required for environmentally friendly web design. Many people think that going green takes a lot of effort and sacrifices, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you’re still stuck thinking that reducing your site’s carbon footprint leads to a reduction in quality, keep reading to see why you’re wrong!
Examples of Green Web Hosting in Action
Let’s take Whole Grain Digital as our first example. This web agency creates and designs sites for their clients in WordPress. And the entire aim of their game is to create websites in a sustainable way. Their simple, clean design doesn’t feature any ads or GIFs running in the background, which immediately saves a heap of energy.
Next, we have ThoughtCo, which is an educational website that, similarly to Whole Grain Digital, opted for a simplistic design with no moving elements.
If you take a minute or two to check out more eco-friendly websites like the ones we mentioned here, you’ll see that it’s entirely possible to create an eco-friendly website that feeds off renewable energy without having it appear boring. So, the next question you might have is: how can you do the same thing?
Simple Ways to Make Your Website More Eco-Friendly
Ready to make your website less taxing on the environment? Here’s where and how to get started!
Choose the Right Web Host
If you work with a green web host that shares your goal of carbon footprint reduction, it’ll be much easier to transform your existing site into an eco-friendly website. Web hosting requires the physical data for every single site to be stored, and the energy consumption of hosting companies has a direct impact on how green (or not) your website is.
Consequently, you need to look for hosting companies that power their servers with renewable energy, make use of energy offsets, and adhere to green practices to reduce the environmental impact of their servers.
Focus on Environmentally-Friendly Web Design
The more complicated your web design is, the more energy it consumes. Every element of your site, all the way from the graphics and animations to the code has an impact on your energy footprint.
A few smart ways to cut back on your energy consumption are by using fewer JavaScript widgets, reducing the number of graphic elements on your site, and ensuring that your load speed is at optimal levels. Focus on the essentials of sustainable web design, and who knows, you might just end up improving the user experience too!
Offer Print-Friendly Content
Many of us feel like printing something important we saw on the web is the best way to save a hard copy of it by printing it. The only problem, however, is that many graphic elements don’t show up properly when we instinctively hit that print button!
So, what’s the next step? You make a few adjustments and hit print, again, just to arrive at the printer and find that this time, the text doesn’t show properly. And so, the cycle carries on until you finally have a stockpile of printouts.
The last thing you want is for someone to have the same experience with your green website. And that’s why it’s important to make your content print-friendly. This will reduce re-prints and effectively save energy and resources in the process.
Invest in Green Marketing and Localization
As a brand, you need to clarify your objectives and demonstrate your real intentions through your website. This becomes even more important in the international market space.
You’ll need to authentically get your eco-friendly approach through to not just local audiences, but foreign audiences as well. And from a cultural and linguistic point of view, translation and localization services can help you develop a coherent form of communication, allowing you to form relationships with your audience while keeping your brand identity intact. For your reference, these are the top translated and interpreted languages in the US.
Work on Your Site Speed
Slow websites use LOTS of energy. Plus, users hate slow-loading websites, so much so that it can affect your ranking factor on Google! And if that doesn’t convince you that load time should be a priority, then we don’t know what will!
Running an Eco-Friendly Website Isn’t Rocket Science
Thanks to its virtual nature, it’s easy to forget about the Internet’s real-life and tangible consequences. All that data needs to live somewhere, and the tech required to facilitate this ramp up the environmental toll.
There has never been a better time to work on reducing the carbon footprint that your own website leaves behind. And in this article, we’ve helped you see how easy it can be by focusing on simple aspects like sticking to simple designs, reducing your load speed, and working with an eco-friendly web host.
These seemingly simple changes can improve your environmental impact and help boost customer experience simultaneously, so why not take advantage of the win-win situation?
