Swisscom is the most sustainable Telco in the World and our goal is to be Net Zero by 2035. We can be very proud about this target, in the knowledge that each day we’re steadily progressing towards this goal.
What is sustainable web design
Sustainable web design is an approach to designing web services that puts people and planet first.
Facts
- Behind every great digital experience is a data center pulling electricity.
- A typical data center can use between 11 and 19 million liters of water per day.
- If the Internet was a country, it would be the 4th largest polluter.
- 80% of emissions are defined in the design + development phase of a product or service.
- Up to 90% of digital data is not used. We collect. We store. We create an then don’t use.
What can I do? (Design & Create for less)
Web technology has the potential to bring huge benefits to society and the environment, but to reduce data storage we should always check:
- Do all elements add value?
- Do we need to track/store all this data?
- Is our default a sustainable choice?
- Optimize images for web (webp or svg)
- Don’t auto-play videos or animations unless triggered by the user
- Use lazy loading
- Design and develop Mobile First
- Are code/features still in use?
- Is the content up to date?
- Remove code complexity where possible
- Check content lifetime regularly
- Minify HTML, CSS, JS
- Run fewer requests/queries
Business Case: Achieve more with less
Using less data → less cloud storage → lower cloud costs
Removing old code → less maintenance → more time
Sustainable web design is much more than simply counting our CO₂ emissions, but we can start here. Here you can get a broader look on that topic with detailed guidelines.