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Let’s make a lighter, brighter web

Scroll down to learn about digital sustainability, and how you can take Positive Steps to reduce the online emissions of your work.

Why we are doing this

Although the Internet has been around since the 90s, not enough people understand that all websites and digital interactions leave a real and physical (carbon) footprint. The idea of the “cloud” needs to come down to Earth, quite literally.

Our Approach

As a design studio, we’ve been on a journey exploring ways we can move towards a more sustainable web. Although it’s a sizeable problem (as highlighted below), we’ve discovered the best way for us to take action is to change how we design and build websites. The aim of this site is to highlight some of our best practice learnings, while hopefully helping others to start their journey towards a lighter, brighter web.

Understanding The Problem

With its energy consuming data centres and vast global infrastructure, the Internet is very much a physical thing responsible for a growing percentage of all global warming. Many of our perceived "greener" digital practices — such as not printing emails — are ironically having the opposite effect with more and more resource heavy servers being built and filled yearly. Scroll on to learn more about this space.

The internet is responsible for around 3.7% of global emissions.

This is predicted to dramatically increase in the coming years.

In 2023, data centres consumed 21% of all electricity in Ireland. This exceeded domestic use!

90% of data sitting on servers goes untouched after just three months.

a typical website with 10,000 monthly views emits the equivalent CO2 as boiling water for 10,200 cups of tea.





So, what can we do?

Positive Steps Forward

Understanding the shape and size of this issue can feel overwhelming (it certainly did for us at the start). But through our research we’ve learned that small steps can add up to big impacts. Below we’ve outlined some key things to consider when building for a lighter, brighter, more sustainable web.





Optimise Imagery


Each image has weight, so a site with lots of images can carry a lot of carbon weight. Use images in a meaningful way - use smaller imagery when possible, and keep full size images to a minimum. Ensure all images are web-optimized to reduce file, page, and load sizes without compromising the look. We love squoosh as an online tool for image optimisation!

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Reducing Video Use


Video is one of the heaviest forms of media as they require a large amount of processing power and energy to run. Our general rule, only publish if it adds genuine value, and if you do ensure it’s properly sized, web-optimised and remove autoplay.

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Mindful Design


Font choice is a small but impactful action in sustainable web design. A well selected typeface only needs to be downloaded once by the user and can be used repeatedly across the site at any scale without adding carbon weight. A general rule of thumb is to keep custom typefaces to a minimum and leverage all of the existing system typefaces.

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Smarter analytics


Yes, data analytics carry a weight (it’s in the name), so add with caution and only when they provide real value. Reducing the number of metrics being tracked will also reduce the carbon impact. You can also opt for a lighter form of tracking, we love Cabin analytics! Perfect for tracking necessary data rather than custom metrics.

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Less but better content


Less is often more when it comes to content. Maintaining massive libraries of content that are rarely accessed causes unneeded weight on a server. Determining what content is most important to your user is key, both at the design and development stages. Plus producing less content is better for your budget :)

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No Bells & Whistles


Use complex and interesting features when they have impact! Cramming loads of galleries, animations, scrolling bars and parallax in where it doesn’t have meaning can often lead to a slow-to-load site, and can feel meaningless to the end user.

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Green Hosting


Although renewable energy is not always what it seems (see more in our Dig Deeper section), selecting a green hosting option is still better, and will be one of your most effective decisions. We recommend Green Geeks as they run on green energy AND run carbon offsetting initiatives.

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Dig Deeper

Sustainability in the design and digital space is constantly evolving. As we discover more people, groups and resources, we will add them to this section. Please get in touch if you have a tipoff or would like to contribute. Additionally, for those looking for more information, we have added more of our research and mapping work uncovered during this project.





From the blog

A Lighter, Brighter 2025: Taking Action on Digital Sustainability

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09.01.2025

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