Probably. Here’s why - and how to fix it.

The digital world has a surprisingly heavy carbon footprint yet it’s often overlooked.  Let us put you in the picture: the internet alone contributes to 4% of global emissions - global! - and it’s expected to double in the next 12 months. 

Currently, the internet produces one billion tons of greenhouse gases every year^[1].

What’s this to you?  Well, every visit to your website, video stream of your content, and scroll through your social media accounts uses energy - and most of it is powered by non-renewable sources. So, whilst it’s great to have built a strong customer engagement with your brand, we all have to play our part in recognising the carbon cost of each interaction.

In contrast, sustainable web design ensures sites are lean and green. They load faster, they’re easier to navigate, and by choosing the right hosting company, any energy they do require will be clean and eco-friendly.

The carbon footprint is just part of the story, too. We all know that the ever-increasing volume of our digital information is held in huge data centres across the world - but did you know how much water those centres use?  A single data centre can use power equivalent to a small city, and that requires a significant amount of water for cooling.  More than 10 million litres a day in fact.

So whilst power consumption (and therefore carbon) is an important concern, water conservation is an equally serious issue caused by our digital footprint.

It seems ironic to us, as web designers, that whilst companies increasingly commit to impressive sustainability goals or carbon reduction strategies, most are completely unaware of the huge damage caused by their online presence.

It’s time to turn the tables - and we started with ourselves.

So, what are sustainable websites?

As an individual company, whilst we can recognise that our use of social media sites or other technology platforms will inevitably have an environmental cost, we don’t have direct access to change that fact.  But when it comes to our own websites, we all very much do.

Here’s where you can make the biggest difference to both carbon and water usage - and surprisingly, you can do it retrospectively, and locally.  By cleaning up your website - the way it functions and the way it’s hosted - you can make an enormous energy saving.

Sustainable websites are simply….simpler. They’re lean, so they use less power by loading faster, offering simple navigation and by being hosted on a clean energy platform.

In 2024, we dedicated a serious amount of time and (mental) energy to cleaning up our own Studio Illicit site.  We wanted to lead the way in sustainable websites - but we also wanted to be guinea pigs to prove our theory that eco sites can still be extraordinary.

By the end of our process, we’d created an improved yet still impactful site which now ranks as 85% cleaner than all global webpages.  Pretty impressive, right?

Five steps to a greener future (sustainable web design)

So what’s the process? We promised to show you how to do it, so here are 5 steps to get you started with sustainable web design.  Each of the items on this checklist will significantly transform not only the environmental impact of your website - but also how your site performs. 

1. Clean up code: getting shot of messy or unnecessary code is key to reducing weight, making your site cleaner and faster.
2. Reduce image sizes: compressing and reformatting images cuts down on load time without compromising on quality.
3. Prioritise the user: sleek navigation and intuitive design enhances efficiency - reducing processing power.
4. Go green on hosting: using renewable power slashes emissions by 15% - perhaps the simplest, most immediate impact.
5. Use a headless CMS: lighten the load and reduce back-end bulk for a much faster site with a lower footprint.

Yes it’s easier to start from scratch and build to these guidelines - we won’t pretend it’s not - so if you have a new site in the pipeline, make these non-negotiable.  But we’ve proved you can do this retrospectively, and it can work.  So if you’re not making a big investment at this stage, talk to us about retrofitting a sustainable website overhaul.

Better for the climate - better for customers

The best thing about this is that there are no compromises with sustainable web design. Trust us, we were concerned about that too. We thought we’d have to lose the bells and whistles, paring things back to a dull approximation of who we really are. But no. We’ve created the same great look, with a seriously lean structure.

Let us take you through a few of the mutual benefits of sustainable websites:

• A leaner site is quicker to load - no more impatient customers
• Simple navigation saves energy - and people find what they need more quickly
• Intuitive design lowers browsing time - and prioritises user experience

By taking these steps, you’re also making an authentic statement about your sustainability commitment.  It’s the antithesis of greenwashing: having the ethical discipline to build environmental benefits into the very fabric of your operation - even within these areas which are unseen.

And the reality is, that as technology and sustainability evolve, so will expectations in building a healthier digital world.  Green or sustainable web design will soon be essential - don’t you want to be a frontrunner?  Lead with purpose now, and we’ll be the vanguard for a future where sustainability isn’t just a bonus, but the norm.

Finally, let us leave you with the compelling truth. Sustainable websites mean improved performance, enhanced accessibility, improved SEO AND cost efficiency.  Honestly, it’s a win/win.