A Sustainable Web Design

What is non-sustainable Raleigh website design? In short, a non-sustainable web design is an energy demanding website. One that needs a large amount of space and leaves huge carbon footprints. Yes, websites can leave carbon footprints. The internet’s carbon footprint is growing annually, proving to be bigger than the entire aviation industry’s carbon footprint. The amount used by the web is also predicted to double in size by 2020.

Raleigh web designers can help lessen the carbon footprint of the internet!

According to alistapart.com, “Just as we refer to a car’s energy usage in terms of miles per gallon, we can think about website energy usage in terms of the amount of data downloaded. This, in turn, gives us a framework for guessing the relationship between page size and carbon footprint.” Below, you’ll find a loose estimate of the web’s actual carbon footprint as alistapart.com maps it:

• A 2008 paper from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests it takes 13kWh to transmit 1GB.
• According to EPA figures, the average U.S. power plant emits 1.2 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent (called CO₂e) per kWh produced (other countries have higher or lower averages depending on their energy policy).
• If we multiply 13kWh by 1.2 pounds, we get 15.6 pounds of CO₂e—and that’s just to transfer 1GB of data.
• If one million users each download a typical page, which now averages 1.4MB, that’s a total of 1,367GB of data.
• At 15.6 pounds per gigabyte, that’s more than 10 tons of CO₂e.
• Mobile data, with its reliance on 3G/4G, is up to five times more polluting—77 pounds CO₂ per gigabyte.
• If a million mobile users on 3G download a 1.4MB page, that’s 1,367GB times 77 pounds, which totals 52 tons of CO₂.

Raleigh web designers can help lessen the internet’s carbon footprint by designing  sustainable websites. If you’re interested in a sustainable web design for your business, contact TigerHive Creative Group. Our Raleigh web designers can work with you to make sure you have a visually stimulating yet “green” website that viewers will love. Also, visit back with us in our next post, to continue the discussion of sustainable web design and how they can make a difference in the world.