Small changes can have a big impact when it comes to the sustainability of your website. Taking a few small steps can often help reduce the digital footprint of your organisation.
Compressing your media
One of the quickest wins is often compressing large media files. These are typically some of the largest files loading on a page, and we often see during our Website Sustainability Audit that this is the single biggest factor in bloated page sizes for most mission-driven organisations.
Lossless compression tools, such as TinyJPG, allow you to significantly reduce your image sizes without noticeable loss in quality.
Using the right file formats
Using an illustration or uploading your logo? You are probably better off using vector graphics (SVG files) rather than flat image files. While also having the benefit of being infinitely scalable with no loss of quality, vector graphics can be much smaller than if JPGs or PNGs were used instead. This isn’t always the case, some vector graphics with intricate details can get very large, so sometimes static images can still be best.
Similarly, modern image formats such as AVIF and WebP offer reduced files sizes compared to JPGs and PNGs, and serving your images in these formats will also make a difference.
Limit your fonts
While having a range of fonts is key to clear information hierarchy and signposting, using too many fonts, in particular if they are used sparingly, can add significant page weight to your site. Limiting yourself to 3 to 4 fonts at a maximum is recommended.
Only use what you need
It may sound obvious, but only using the objects you really need is vital in making digital sustainability improvements. Decisions made during the design of your website can have a significant knock-on effect for the carbon emissions of your site, and so digital sustainability considerations at this stage can have significant emissions savings. This can include being intentional with your use of imagery or video and by refining your user journey to focus on the key information needed by your audiences.
When built, your website will often have a lot of functionality and code that isn’t needed everywhere on your site. Using efficient caching plugins can help to use only the code that your webpage needs, helping to reduce the resources downloaded when visiting your site and therefore carbon emissions.
In Summary
A few quick wins can make a big difference to the carbon emissions of your website. So if you are a charity, B Corp or mission-driven organisation and need help implementing any of these changes or if you are interested in digital sustainability as part of a wider website overhaul, book a call with our team, we’d be happy to help.
I'm a multi-disciplinary designer, with many years of experience designing graphics with impact and seamless user experiences. I started my career designing consumer products, but have since worked on a diverse range of projects from leading brand refresh projects for charities like Sculpt, Jamma and TUSP, sustainable and user-friendly website re-designs for CTRF, Climate Change Coaches and Mokoro to large internal communication projects for WWF and Oxford HR. I'm passionate about the use of design as a tool for positive social change, and with particular interest in projects tackling racial inequality and children’s social care. Recently I was appointed as a Trustee for the new charity Board Racial Diversity UK, working to improve representation within the UK charity sector.
