{"id":3122746,"date":"2021-03-10T13:55:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T12:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/?p=3122746"},"modified":"2022-03-24T10:51:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T09:51:19","slug":"how-to-reduce-website-carbon-footprint-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/blog\/how-to-reduce-website-carbon-footprint-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Websites by Improving Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might not think about it, but every website, including yours, requires electricity to run, which produces carbon and affects the environment.<\/p>

However, not all websites are equal. By implementing some strategies, you can make your website more efficient to reduce its impact on the environment and make it load faster for your visitors.<\/p>

It\u2019s a real win-win, which is why we decided to write this post. Here\u2019s what we\u2019ll cover:<\/p>

  1. The carbon footprint of websites, and why it\u2019s something you should think about.<\/li>
  2. How to reduce the digital carbon footprint of your WordPress website.<\/li><\/ol>

    Do Websites Really Have a Carbon Impact?<\/h2>

    When you\u2019re browsing the web, it\u2019s easy to separate your actions from their impact on the environment.<\/p>

    When you\u2019re driving a car, the connection is clear \u2013 you can see it in your gas gauge going down and the fumes coming out of your exhaust pipe. But with a website, all you\u2019re doing is staring at a screen \u2013 you\u2019re not affecting the environment, right?<\/p>

    Despite that disconnect, your actions on the web do have environmental impacts. Every website you visit has a web host and a datacenter behind it. Those data centers require lots of energy to power servers, cool them, etc.<\/p>

    What\u2019s more, the data that you transmit all around the world also has an energy cost. Remember that viral Despacito video from 2018 that hit over five billion views? That video alone<\/em> used about as much energy<\/a> as 40,000 homes in the USA use in an entire year<\/em>.<\/p>

    According to Website Carbon Calculator<\/a>, a tool that we\u2019ll cover later in more depth, the average website that it tested uses about 1.76 grams of C02 per page view, which equals 211 KG per year for a site that gets 10,000 page views per month.<\/p>

    And that number comes from people who care enough about the environment to use a carbon calculator for their websites! The numbers are likely even worse for the sample of all websites as a whole.<\/p>

    So how much does it all add up to? Overall, internet use accounts<\/a> for about 3.7% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to 2020 digital footprint statistics. That means the internet environmental impact is about the same as the global aviation industry!<\/p>

    Why It\u2019s Important to Reduce Your Digital Carbon Footprint<\/h2>

    In the previous sentence, you learned that internet usage currently<\/em> accounts for about 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, that number is rapidly changing\u2026 in the wrong direction.<\/p>

    The internet\u2019s energy is predicted to double by 2025<\/a>, and it could account for a whopping 14% of global emissions by 2040<\/a>. In the words of one of the people interviewed in that article, \u201cWe have a tsunami of data approaching.\u201d<\/p>

    While your website is just a drop in the pond (and sites like Facebook and YouTube take up much larger shares), every little bit adds up. If every webmaster were to reduce their sites\u2019 digital carbon footprints, we could at least slow down this growth.<\/p>

    If that\u2019s not enough for you, here\u2019s a more immediate reason to reduce your site\u2019s carbon footprint:<\/p>

    Most of the issues that increase your site\u2019s carbon footprint are also the same issues that make your site load slower.<\/strong><\/p>

    For example, adding large images to your website consumes more energy because there\u2019s more data to transfer, but it also makes your site slower for the same reason.<\/p>

    Similarly, not using caching uses more energy because it requires more server processing power\/time. Still, it also slows your site down because your server has to do more work before it\u2019s able to deliver the page to your site\u2019s visitors.<\/p>

    Reducing your site\u2019s carbon footprint goes hand-in-hand with improving its performance, so it\u2019s a huge win-win scenario.<\/p>

    How to Measure Your WordPress Website Carbon Footprint<\/h2>

    At this point, you might be wondering how green your WordPress website is right now.<\/p>

    To help you calculate your website\u2019s carbon footprint, you can use the Website Carbon Calculator<\/a> from Wholegrain Digital<\/a>, a London-based WordPress development agency.<\/p>

    All you do is plug in your website\u2019s URL. Then, the calculator will tell you how much carbon your site produces for each page load as well as how your site compares to other sites that the tool has tested:<\/p>

    \"website-carbon-calculator\"<\/figure>

    Of course, it\u2019s hard to understand that number without context. So if you scroll down, you can enter your site\u2019s monthly page views, and the tool will relate that information to more real-world details, such as the amount of carbon that a tree produces:<\/p>

    \"website-carbon-calculator-2\"<\/figure>

    The tool estimates your energy usage based on five pieces of data:<\/p>

    1. The amount of data that your site transfers<\/li>
    2. The energy intensity of web data in general<\/li>
    3. Whether your host is known to use green energy<\/li>
    4. The carbon intensity of electricity in general<\/li>
    5. Your site\u2019s website traffic (you need to add this manually<\/em>)<\/li><\/ol>
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