You are thinking about creating your own website, so how do you make it sustainable? The internet runs on energy, lots of it, and most of this is nonrenewable energy. As you read this, your computer is accessing and processing data, your monitor is displaying that data to you, and some far-away server is hosting all the files that comprise this website. All of these processes gobble up energy.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should avoid logging on. The Internet is a remarkable tool for sharing information and empowering each other. Sure, it uses energy, but so do brochures, books, stores, and phones (all of which the Internet is replacing). You shouldn’t feel guilty about creating a website, but you should take steps to make your contribution to the worldwide web a little friendlier towards the real world. On that front, we are proud to say that www.wordpress-837916-4114959.cloudwaysapps.com is hosted in a datacenter which runs on 100% renewable hydroelectric energy!
BENEFIT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Reduce energy usage, fossil fuel emissions. Increase awareness of environmental issues.
BENEFITS FOR YOUR USERS: They’ll thank you. Green websites often run faster and look sleeker on top of being good for Mother Earth!
Time and effort: Medium
Cost: Medium. A green web hosting provider can cost more than a conventional provider.
Guidelines for Making Your Website Sustainable:
- Don’t host your website on your friend’s basement server. Shared hosting is much more energy efficient,1 not to mention much more reliable, especially if you scour the market for an environmentally friendly hosting provider. Green providers use carbon credit , and use servers optimized for energy efficiency. Some will even plant a tree for you. To find a provider, browse reviews at ecohostreviews.com.
- Update or design your website on a computer that’s carbon neutral. Call up your utility company and ask if it provides energy from renewable resources, or install solar panels or wind turbines at your home or office.
- Neutralize the remainder of your carbon footprint, and in return get a web badge from CO2stats to show off your good environmental practices.
- Keep your site design simple to decrease its energy usage. Ditch unnecessary animations such as splash pages and animated ads. Post fewer images and lower their resolutions. Eliminate superfluous JavaScript and avoid Flash altogether. These steps will decrease load time and make the site easier to navigate, and your users will thank you for that.
- Integrate light colors and lots of white space into your design. Old CRT monitors require more energy to display lighter colors, but LCD monitors (which most people use today) require less.2
- Attract followers by going green. Commit to plant a tree for each subscriber. Either plant a native seed in your neighborhood, or pledge $1 for each tree to the Arbor Day Foundation.
- Make a version of your site that’s suitable for handheld devices such as iPhones and Blackberries, which are more energy efficient than desktop computers. For starters, scale down all images and decrease the overall width of the site.
- Make a printer-friendly version of your site content to save your readers paper, ink, and energy. Remove graphics, color, ads, and navigation items. Remind your visitors to print only when necessary.
- Take advantage of special deals. Are you a blogger? Post Brighter Planet’s badge on your blog, and they’ll offset 350 pounds of carbon in your name, for free! According to Brighter Planet, “That’s like flicking off 100 lightbulbs for a day. Or going two full weeks without your car!”
- Include environmentally friendly content on your site. Are you blogging? Write occasional posts about environmental topics that interest you. Are you selling a product? Make sure that product is eco-friendly, and relay its eco-cred to your customers.
Don’t feel pressure to heed all of the above advice. You might not yet have the funds to install solar panels or the experience to tailor your site for handheld devices. Be realistic. Creating a website is already more environmentally friendly than printing thousands of brochures or setting up a brick-and-mortar storefront to sell your products. The best thing about a website is that, unlike a billboard or book, it’s ever-changing. Even if you don’t get everything right the first time around (and you won’t), you can always tweak your site to make it more user-friendly, more beautiful, and more green—preferably light green!
