Websites and climate change
Websites contribute to carbon emissions primarily through the energy required to power the data centres that store and process website information, which often rely on electricity generated from fossil fuels, as well as the network infrastructure used to transmit data to users.
These elements consume electricity and generate greenhouse gases. Essentially, every time someone accesses a website, it requires energy to retrieve and display that information, leading to a carbon footprint associated with that website.
…but the SusCha site has a (relatively) low carbon footprint
A low-carbon website is defined as one that produces 0.5g or less of CO2 per page load. This site falls well below that threshold with a typical page view generating an estimated 0.17g of CO2, as calculated by Website Carbon Tracker.
Various elements contribute to this, including:
- Optimised website performance – We focus on lightweight, accessible, and efficient code to reduce server load and energy use.
- Colour palette and image size – This site mainly features darker colours which require less energy to display. Â Image sizes have been kept as low as possible to minimise energy use.
- Green hosting – We use Cloudabove, a UK-based provider with servers that run on 100% renewable energy.