The World’s First Carbon Calculator for Websites

After learning more about web sustainability, we started to ask questions: How do these global emissions relate to individual websites? Can we measure this?

At this time, there was no real way of measuring the carbon footprint of websites, so we set about designing a solution. The result is the world’s first carbon calculator for websites, which we shared with the wider online community in May 2018. Developing the calculator has allowed us to review our business processes and take ownership of the broader issue so that we can lead a wider shift in encouraging best practice within our industry.

Understanding our impact has lead to a radical shift in our practices. After launching the carbon calculator, it was time for us to walk the talk and work out our own website carbon emissions. The next step was to overhaul the site, using our unique efficiency by design process, which delivers great user experience and SEO by focusing on the three pillars of efficiency: performance, sustainability and accessibility. Our goal was to build a more efficient site with significantly lower carbon emissions. The first iteration of the new website launched in August 2018, and it was 77 percent faster, with a 45 percent reduction in carbon emissions—a success all around!

The carbon calculator enables us to communicate a website’s environmental impact when working on projects with clients. It also shows that, from the initial discovery stage, putting efficiency at the heart of the design process can be better for business and lessen the impact on our planet.

Leading a Sustainable Web (and World) Revolution

We’re always looking to encourage others to take responsibility and make this industry more sustainable. So we’ve teamed with fellow B Corps Leap, Mightybytes and OpenConcept, as well as other industry professionals, to develop a sustainable web manifesto. The manifesto sets out a series of core principles that all web professionals can sign up to as a way of demonstrating their shared commitment to creating a sustainable internet.

Those who sign up are pledging that the products and services they create and use are clean, efficient, open, honest and regenerative. As this community of sustainable web professionals grows, we all support each other to achieve this by sharing new developments, ideas and best practice — much like the B Corp community!

Our mission remains as it always has been: ensuring that we have a positive impact on people and planet. Our focus is within our industry, where we believe we can really affect change. However, the principle of leadership being about taking real action to drive things forward can apply across all industries. We are already seeing this with organisations like DoNation, helping people from all walks of life come together to make small changes to create a better world, and Ecover, a company with a leading voice on sustainable living.

With B Corps leading the charge within our respective areas and with more companies joining the movement, we believe that we can be an unstoppable force, creating a better future for people and planet.