Websites that don't cost the earth

As the world becomes more conscious of environmental issues, it's important to consider the impact of everything we do - even beyond straws, coffee cups and air miles. Sustainable web design is an approach to web design that minimises the environmental impact of having user’s load and use your website, and having data centres host it. In this blog post, we'll explore why it's important that websites are designed more sustainably, what types of design changes make websites more sustainable, and why more sustainable websites are beneficial for businesses.

Why is it important that websites are designed with sustainability in mind?

The internet has a surprisingly large environmental impact. Every time we visit a website, data is transmitted from servers to our devices, using energy and contributing to carbon emissions. In fact, it's estimated that the carbon emissions generated by the internet are equivalent to those of the aviation industry. By making only a handful of more sustainable design choices, we can reduce this impact and help to mitigate climate change.

What types of design changes make websites more sustainable?

There are a number of design changes that can make websites more sustainable. One of the most important is reducing the size of web pages. This is done by optimising images to load only at exactly the size needed by the user, compressing code and making sure unused code isn’t loaded, and reducing the number of overall requests a page makes to a server when used. Other strategies include colour palette choices, sustainable typeface choices, using green hosting, only using animations and videos that have real impact and purpose, and taking advantage of tools like carbon offsetting. For a deep dive into all of these strategies, including exactly what you can do to get the ball rolling in your business and more, you can check out Yoyo’s sustainable guide to digital design guide.

Why are more sustainable websites beneficial for businesses?

Sustainable web design isn't just good for the environment - it's also good for businesses. By reducing the size of web pages, businesses can improve the performance of their websites, leading to faster load times and, if done right, a better overall user experience. This can translate into wins like increased engagement, higher conversion rates, and improved search engine rankings. And of course, by demonstrating a commitment to sustainability, businesses can appeal to environmentally conscious consumers.

Sustainable web design is an important consideration for anyone involved in web design, whether you're a marketing team, development team, UX team or CEO. By taking small steps to reduce the environmental impact of our websites and digital experiences, we can help to mitigate climate change and improve the performance of our sites.

If you're interested in learning more about sustainable web design, we offer UX and sustainability reviews that offer a prioritised roadmap of actionable improvements - organised for your teams in order of urgency and impact. 

Get in touch with us to find out more.