The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops standards and guidelines to help everyone build a web based on the principles of accessibility, internationalization, privacy and security.
When we code websites, we check the HTML and CSS against the W3C standards to make sure it displays properly in as many web browsers as possible. A community group within the W3C has just released a Web Sustainability Guidelines report. Websites have a huge environmental impact so this is fantastic work to make web design and development more eco-friendly.
Web Sustainability Guidelines
This new specification includes 93 guidelines with 232 success criteria, references and examples. It represents nearly two years of work from around 50 volunteers across five different committees:
Areas covered include: UX Design, Web Development, Hosting & Infrastructure, Product & Business Strategy and Metrics. The guidelines reflect environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles outlined in the Sustainable Web Manifesto
UX Design
The UX design part of the Web Sustainability Guidelines Report focuses on creating user-centred and sustainable digital experiences. The guidelines highlight the need for efficient and lightweight design elements, such as minimising the use of large images and animations that consume excessive bandwidth and energy. It also encourages the use of responsive design techniques to optimise the user experience across different devices and screen sizes.
Example of ‘deceptive pattern’ in UX design shown in Microsoft Edge when you try and download Google Chrome
The report emphasises the importance of accessibility and inclusive design practices to ensure that websites can be accessed and used by all users, regardless of their abilities. It also advises against deceptive patterns in UX design that trick people into making certain choices. Overall, the UX design guidelines aim to create sustainable websites that are user-friendly, accessible, and environmentally conscious.
Web Development
This part of the report focuses on creating sustainable and energy-efficient websites through efficient coding practices. The guidelines emphasise the importance of optimising code to reduce page load times and minimise energy consumption. This includes techniques such as compressing files, minimising HTTP requests, and utilising caching mechanisms.
The report also highlights the significance of using clean and semantic code to improve website performance and maintainability. It encourages developers to prioritise lightweight frameworks and libraries to reduce resource usage. Additionally, the guidelines promote the use of renewable energy sources for hosting websites and encourage developers to choose environmentally friendly hosting providers.
This part is very timely, as many modern coding frameworks, themes and page builders are absolutely huge and unnecessary. We build our WordPress themes from scratch for all our eco web design projects to make them as light and fast loading as possible.
Hosting & Infrastructure
This section focuses on creating sustainable and environmentally friendly hosting solutions for websites. The guidelines emphasise the importance of selecting green web hosting providers that prioritise renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar power, to power their data centres. It also encourages the use of energy-efficient hardware and cooling systems to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Various tools like https://www.websitecarbon.com/ exist to show the carbon impact of your website
As well as web hosting considerations, the report highlights the significance of conducting regular energy audits and monitoring energy usage to identify areas for improvement. Additionally, it promotes the use of virtualisation and cloud computing to optimise resource utilisation and minimise energy waste. The guidelines also address the importance of data security and privacy, encouraging the use of encryption and secure hosting practices.
Product & Business Strategy
This section is broader focused, and about integrating sustainability principles into the overall strategy of a business or organisation. The guidelines highlight the importance of considering sustainability throughout the entire product lifecycle, from conception to disposal. It encourages businesses to incorporate environmental and social considerations into their product development processes, such as using sustainable materials, reducing waste, and ensuring ethical sourcing practices.
The report emphasises the need for businesses to set clear sustainability goals and regularly monitor and report on their progress. It also promotes the adoption of sustainable business practices, such as implementing energy-efficient technologies, reducing carbon emissions, and promoting employee engagement in sustainability initiatives.
This work directly opposes ‘greenwashing‘ that many large companies are doing to try and appear more sustainable. It also calls into question whole industries. For example can we ever have sustainable sugary drinks in plastic bottles when the whole point of the business is to produce poor quality items from fossil fuels?
Metrics
This section focuses on the importance of measuring and tracking sustainability performance. The guidelines emphasise the need for businesses and organisations to establish clear and relevant metrics to assess their sustainability efforts. This includes measuring energy consumption, carbon emissions, water usage, waste generation, and other relevant environmental impacts.
“What gets measured gets managed”
Peter Drucker
The report also highlights the significance of considering social and economic metrics, such as employee well-being, community engagement, and economic contributions. It encourages businesses to establish baselines, set targets, and regularly monitor progress towards sustainability goals. The guidelines further emphasise the importance of transparency and reporting, urging businesses to publicly disclose their sustainability metrics and performance to stakeholders.
Companies like Small99 can help small businesses measure and improve their carbon footprint.
Summary
The new Web Sustainability Guidelines report from the W3C community group is a fantastic, comprehensive resource and aims to improve the sustainability of the web design industry, helping us web designers and small businesses create more sustainable and responsible online experiences.
Read more on the project website at: https://www.w3.org/community/sustyweb/
I’m reading the whole spec and will be including as many of their recommendations as possible!