How to Make Your Digital Presence More Sustainable: Website, Apps, and Social Media
The environmental impact of business isn’t limited to physical industries, processes, and supply chains, but also to your digital presence. If you have an online presence, chances are you’re contributing to carbon emissions through the energy used by the servers running your website and apps.
And since the world recently smashed through the 2-degree warming limit for the first time since the industrial era, this might be the best time to switch your online business to a more sustainable model. Especially considering regulations and carbon taxes are developing worldwide.
Plus, sustainability is good for business. Around 73% of consumers reported being more inclined to purchase products from sustainable brands.
Today, there are several strategies businesses can implement to make their digital presence greener. This article will cover those major strategies, including ways to reduce your website and app’s carbon footprint, slowly inching towards a more sustainable business model.
How to Make Your Website More Sustainable
Your website is one of the most critical components of your business. It’s the vehicle through which most potential customers are introduced to your products or services, or where they go to learn more about you. It can also be a large source of carbon emissions.
The average website emits about one gram of carbon dioxide equivalent per pageview. Depending on how many pageviews your website is generating (and hopefully it’s a lot — if it’s not, contact us to talk about that), this might be a significant source of carbon emissions.
Fortunately, there are multiple ways to lower the environmental impact of your website, and they’re all focused on reducing the amount of energy it consumes.
Green Hosting
The data center you choose to host your website can greatly impact the amount of carbon emissions your website generates. For businesses that truly want to lower their environmental impact, it’s wise to invest in green hosting solutions.
The Green Web Foundation is an open service with a list of regionally sorted sustainable web hosting providers. It’s a great place to start.
But how do these green hosting solutions differ from traditional web hosting? Traditional data servers consume huge amounts of electricity that is usually generated from non-renewable resources.
Green web hosting providers, on the other hand, use either a renewable energy source or carbon offsetting to balance out their carbon emissions. Based on your specific interests and needs, you should be able to find a sustainable web hosting service that works for you.
Energy Efficient Web Design
The interface and design of your website can contribute greatly to the amount of energy your website consumes. Energy-efficient web design not only reduces energy, but it also increases your loading speed, which also has a positive impact on your website’s SEO score. It’s a win-win-win.
It all begins with optimizing the code used to build the website. This includes removing any redundant code, white spaces, comments and compressing all multimedia content to reduce loading times.
There’s an argument to consider for introducing mobile-first responsiveness since most people use their phones to access the web and it’s more energy efficient. If most of your visitors are using laptops or desktops, then this would be counterproductive, but if your website is a mobile magnet, it could make sense to make its default interface the mobile version.
All in all, these steps will both enhance the user experience and reduce the energy consumed during rendering.
How to Make Your Apps More Sustainable
It’s important to figure out how to make your apps more sustainable as well, if you have one. Fortunately, the strategies for making your apps eco-friendly are similar to those we discussed above for your website.
Optimize Coding and Design
Reducing code bloat and optimizing algorithms can lower the number of CPU cycles it takes to run the app, decreasing the overall energy consumed. The same concept applies to removing unnecessary functions and streamlining the code, which should reduce the processing power needed to run the app.
Implementing energy-efficient design can also greatly reduce the amount of energy and processing power screens use.
A lazy loading feature, where your app or website only loads content on-demand instead of loading everything automatically, can conserve power and data without major user drawbacks, unless they are scrolling very quickly.
Additional sustainable features include implementing a dark mode, a minimalist user interface, and compressed graphics to reduce energy consumption.
Eco-Friendly Data Centers
This one is pretty straightforward. Opt for sustainable hosting providers who get their power from renewable energy resources and use the latest energy-saving hardware in their servers.
For way more information than you ever wanted about sustainable data centers, check out this great in-depth article.
Also, make sure you take a close look at the kind of cooling technology they’re using, as the cooling system’s efficiency can significantly reduce the energy consumed.
How to Make Your Social Media Activity More Sustainable
Your digital presence isn’t restricted to just your website and apps, it also extends to your social media presence.
Every business needs to establish a social media presence to create awareness about their product/service. Optimizing your images and videos for speed and size can help achieve a lower carbon footprint.
Also, not all social media platforms are created equal in terms of carbon emissions. According to research by Greenspector, TikTok generates the most grams of carbon emissions per minute of use at 2.63, while YouTube is the least at 0.46 grams per minute. X (Twitter) comes in at 0.60, LinkedIn at 0.71, and Instagram at 1.05.
Make Every Business Decision Align With Sustainable Goals
Reducing the environmental impact of your business’ digital presence is probably low on your sustainability priority list, unless you are a web hosting service provider or some company whose focus is all digital.
But when the stock take of a company’s carbon emissions eventually leads to its digital footprint, business leaders will find there is a lot they can do to lessen their environmental impact and promote sustainable practices that are in line with their overall business objectives.
Photo by Google DeepMind