As a WordPress developer adopting sustainable web design, I want to know how much you care about reducing carbon footprint on your website.
To answer: Vote in this Twitter poll: Link
To discuss more, answer any or all questions below...
- What do the words "sustainable web design" make you feel or remind you of?
- Have you ever wanted to find out how much your website pollutes the planet?
- Does it make you excited or want to learn more about ways to reduce carbon footprint on your website? Why or why not?
- How much do you factor in sustainable design practices when making your website? Is sustainability a priority when creating your website?
- What other questions do you have about eco-friendly web design?
Can't wait to hear from you!
Top comments (4)
I'll admit that this is not something I've really thought very much about. Is this primarily related to the web hosting - are there other elements that significantly contribute to the eco-friendliness or sustainability in web design?
Hi Andy! Yes! A big part of it relates to a web hosting provider. Ideally, to make a website more sustainable, go with a green web host, where it runs data centers with renewable energy. But that's not the only thing we can do. If we can't migrate to a different host, we can focus on optimizing other web components to keep the site lean and clean. Our goal is to reduce the energy consumption as much as possible. Examples of things we can do include avoid or reduce embedded videos or disable autoplay, optimize and reduce image size, reduce JavaScript dependence or heavy frameworks, stick with system fonts, use lazy loading function, etc. I believe you already adopt some of these practices because most of the times sustainable design intersects with designing for fast-loading, high-performance websites :)
Got it, thanks for the clarifications! Yes, definitely want to keep things lean and quick where possible. I guess there could be a difficult set of choices around visual flair and functionality in order to maintain that.
Do you have specific hosts that you prefer or recommend, what sort of questions should we ask or should we look for / how can we find better options there?
What you said about visual elements on the website is true! Could be difficult to decide what to keep, what not.
Now, I'm using Dreamhost for all of my sites. It's decent in my opinion and is one of the green hosting providers. You can view the list of
The Green Hosting Directory right here. Someone in sustainable web design space suggested that Kualo is also a great choice.
For questions around green hosts, I find this Wholegrain's article very helpful. They're a leader when it comes to sustainable web design.
Thanks for your comment and questions! It's great to know that some people care :)