Are you a green business? Is your website contributing to climate change?
No-one wants to think that they’re contributing to climate change. Least of all if they don’t know what the alternatives are. According to online carbon calculator Website Carbon, “the average website produces 1.76g of CO2 for every page view. For a website with 10,000 monthly page views, that’s 211 kg CO2 per year”. The internet’s carbon footprint is similar to that of the airline industry.
Are you a green business, or a business trying to be green? The impact of your website might not have been something that you’ve considered. How could it be bad for the environment?
It’s simple really. The larger and more resource-rich your website is, the more energy it requires to load and host. If you have pop-ups at every turn, large videos that need a few seconds (at least) to load and huge animated graphics, your website is going to energy-intensive.
What can you do?
1. Traditional vs. Green Hosting
Your website requires energy…where does that energy come from? It’s going to be either fossil fuels, or renewable energy.
One of the first things you can do, is switch to green hosting. Green hosting is hosting that is run on renewable energy, from green resources. This means that when your website is using energy, it’s coming from an eco-friendly source. Whereas fossil fuels have been proven to be the leading cause of climate change and create pollution that is damaging to both the environment as well as human health.
Reforest Hosting uses autoscaling technology. This ensures that when a website becomes busy, it can be allocated multiple services across the resources of our entire hosting platform. Uniquely, this also works in reverse: when a website is no longer busy, it will take up less resources. (These include processors, RAM and the associated cooling tech.) Fewer resources used, means less electricity used and therefore a reduction in emissions.
2. Slimline your site
Another important factor to consider, is making your website energy-efficient. Optimising your website will mean that it uses minimal energy and is resource-efficient. One way of doing this is to ensure all of your images are sized correctly and therefore load quickly. Maybe try swapping out site-hosted videos for embedded links instead, to take the pressure off your website too.
3. Use a sustainable web management company
So, you’ve switched to green hosting and sped up your website but you need some help managing it. Choose a web management company that aligns with your green values and shares your passion for looking after the environment. This means you’ll be giving your money to a company that cares and has committed to take measures to reduce their own carbon footprint.
4. Balance your impact
Offsetting seems to be the latest trend. For good reason. It’s great to minimise your impact on the environment, but you can’t be perfect. At Reforest Hosting, we plant 5 trees per month for every hosting package. This means that your website is giving back to the environment by helping to protect again biodiversity loss, sequestering carbon and conserving natural areas. Mitigate your impact on the environment whilst you maximise your impact in your market.
5. Take Green Payments
Considering the eco-credentials your suppliers is a great place to start if you’re trying to reduce the carbon footprint of your business. One link that a lot of businesses are missing in their supply chain is their payment processor. ReforestPay provides an alternative to the traditional payment gateway, planting a tree for every transaction. This creates the opportunity to allow businesses to invest in our planet with every transaction.