Hey Reader,
For a while, we knew that the impact of our websites was not good. We had run them through a carbon calculator and found that they were actually performing as some of the worst on the web 🤦🏽‍♀️. Of course, when you discover you are accidentally doing something that causes negative impacts, the first thing to do is investigate why and then develop a plan to fix it. We’re proud to say that the newly launched UnSchool site has a grade of A+ for our carbon footprint.
It has taken us the better part of a year to get our new sites designed by a team of incredible sustainable web designers/developers, and we have learned A LOT! In today’s Interconnected, we want to get you thinking about digital impacts by sharing a few of the places where we began exploring our digital impact. Over the next few months, we will share more about what we did and what we learned in the process.
Also, we realized we hadn't run a sale for ages, so scroll down to get a 50% off sale code for anything* at UnSchools Online for the next 5 days!!!!
READ
Digital Carbon Footprints
A Note from Leyla:
Through researching the areas of impact in the digital space, I realised we were uploading a lot of digital content that was heavy and sucking energy—not just every time someone came to the site, but all the time. It was like leaving the lights on in all the rooms you are not using. So, we explored how to get green code that lightweighted the site; like motion-sensor lights, now most of the content activates only when people come to visit. It meant we had to really change the way visual content is displayed, but we now have a lightweighted site.
To learn more about digital carbon footprints and the environmental impacts of the internet, check out the Sustainable Web Design website.
Websight Lightweight Processes
A note from Emma:
Learning more sustainable web design approaches has been a roller coaster. Black is now white and white is now black—quite literally. In opposition to print design, sustainable colour use for the web is reversed. When printing on physical surfaces, you seek to reduce ink (black or otherwise) as much as possible and end up with a ton of white space. In digital, you seek to reduce light colours as much as possible and end up with a ton of dark space. Our devices are light-powered screens, and every pixel that lights up also draws energy—so the darker it is, the less energy it uses. And for some reason, royal blue, a colour we used often, is particularly energy-hungry. Now multiply this use by every person that visits the site, and all of a sudden, it’s a big energy hit.
The story doesn’t end there. We are also aiming to make our website as accessible as possible, and white text on black (the most sustainable) is also the hardest to read (the least accessible). So, finding a balance between sustainability, accessibility and aesthetics has been quite a journey as we try to make the website easy, light and pleasing. This is the tip of the iceberg; stay tuned for a longer article once the project is complete, covering the A-Z of redesigning for web sustainability—from renewable-energy-powered servers to optimizing buttons.
Sustainable Web Development Companies
After we researched what was going wrong with our sites, we asked our current web company (Squarespace) for more information on their servers and sustainability commitments.
As they were unable to address our concerns, we sought a new website design company that shared our dedication to sustainability. That search led us to the incredible company we are working with, Leap, and our hero web developer Nick, who runs a site that provides resources and knowledge for sustainable websites. 🫶
Another great sustainable web development company is Wholegrain Digital, founded by Vineeta and Tom Greenwood, the author of the Sustainable Web Design handbook.
LISTEN
Net Zero: A Digital Journey
The tech industry is uniquely positioned to drive climate action, as it can develop interventions that both reduce emissions and minimise its own impact. Learn more by watching this video with Tom Greenwood as a guest.
REFLECT + ENGAGE
Here are Ways to Take Action Now:
- ​Do your website carbon calculation. Be warned, you may also be shocked to discover the impacts of your site!
- Get inspired with this directory of low-carbon websites​
- Make your device work better for you with these accessibility guides​
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Follow these helpful hints when building a website:
- Hosting: Check where your website is hosted and what energy sources the servers are using. There are quite a few renewable energy hosting services now, and we have swapped to UK-based Krystal.
- Videos: Limit the number of videos, and if you have control over the code, enable lazy loading (for images and videos) so they don’t load until needed.
- Images: Curate the type and number of images you use: photos and gradients have a ton of different coloured pixels (ie, higher energy draw) and simple flat illustrations have less.
- Accessibility Standards: For ux and graphics, fonts, type on colour and colour contrast, these are all standardized and checkable.
- Sustainability Standards: The full standards are here, and you can read about them here.
- Go analogue: Read books, make art, go outside.
- Join the Sustainable UX community (SUX)