How website owners and content creators can help reduce carbon emissions

1st Nov 2021

COP26 is officially underway. Now is the time that we want to see world leaders make real commitments to reducing carbon emissions. Amongst other means, two proposed measures to achieve this are to accelerate the phase-out of coal and encourage investment in renewables.

There will need to be some bold pledges from those in power, and waiting for them to take action can leave us feeling a little powerless. However, as we know, every change can make a difference.

In our world of web design and website hosting, we know of a few ways that small changes to our online activities can collectively have a big, positive impact.

Here’s what we all can do:

• Have a digital clean up – delete things that you no longer need and/or aren’t legally required to store.
• Be discerning about what you post on social media and how frequently.
• Think twice before making videos. They are the hungriest of all types of media, using the most data storage and transfer and energy consumption.
• Re-size and optimise website images before uploading them to your website.
• Think about digital waste… Does your website use an old, inefficient theme or keep idle plugins?
• Keep on top of your mail-box, be especially aware of attachments and remember the sent items folder.
• Choose a green website hosting provider to power your website with renewable energy.
• Choose web companies who are also working to reduce their carbon emissions.

Why should we do these things?

Despite the internet appearing to be an intangible thing, it is very much made up of physical resources and consumes huge amounts of energy, 24 hours a day. Read more about this in our previous articles...

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