This document lists additional resources that reinforce the guidelines and success criteria within the Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) specification.
Resources may include academic and/or government sources, works from standards bodies, research papers, case studies, relevant content showcasing implementation or use cases, tools (free or open source); or other materials that are relevant to understanding, implementing, or reinforcing the sustainability principles.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied. Neither the W3C nor the Sustainable Web Interest Group can guarantee the sustainability of these external resources.
Help improve this page by sharing your ideas, suggestions, or comments via GitHub issues.
Additional Resources
User Experience Design
Guideline 2.1: Examine and disclose any external factors interacting with your project
SC: Impact analysis
SC: External impact
Guideline 2.2: Understand user requirements or constraints, resolving barriers to access
SC: Audience evaluation
SC: Barriers and access
SC: Barrier removal
Guideline 2.3: Integrate sustainability into every stage of the ideation process
SC: Sustainable brand development
SC: Wireframes and prototypes
SC: Participation and testing
SC: Environmental ideation
Guideline 2.4: Minimize non-essential content, interactivity, or journeys
SC: Efficient paths
SC: Patterns for efficiency
SC: Distraction-free design
SC: Eliminate the non-essential
SC: User-initiated actionable content
SC: Decorative design
Guideline 2.5: Ensure that navigation and wayfinding are well-structured
SC: Navigation and search
SC: Human-readable sitemaps
SC: New content
Guideline 2.6: Design to assist and not to distract
SC: Respect user attention
SC: Minimize distraction
SC: Reduce engagement traps
Guideline 2.7: Avoid being manipulative or deceptive
SC: Deceptive design patterns
SC: Advertisements
SC: Analytics and tracking
SC: Search Engine Optimization
Guideline 2.8: Make deliverables understandable and reusable
SC: Deliverables Reusability
SC: Deliverables documentation
SC: Deliverables readability
Guideline 2.9: Use a design system for interface consistency
Guideline 2.10: Provide clear, inclusive content with purpose
SC: Clear content
SC: Content formatting
Guideline 2.11: Optimize media for sustainability
SC: Need for media
SC: Optimized media
SC: Lazy loading
SC: User-controlled media
SC: Media management and use
Guideline 2.12: Ensure animation is proportionate and easy to control
SC: Need for animation
SC: Avoiding overburdening
SC: Control animation
Guideline 2.13: Use optimized and appropriate web typography
SC: Pre-installed typefaces
SC: Font optimization
Guideline 2.14: Offer suitable alternatives for every format used
SC: Open formats
SC: Font stack fallbacks
SC: Alternative text
SC: Transcripts and text
SC: Video alternatives
Guideline 2.15: Provide accessible, usable, minimal web forms
SC: Simple forms
SC: Functional forms
Guideline 2.16: Provide useful notifications
SC: Need for notification
SC: Notification settings
Guideline 2.17: Reduce the impact of downloadable and physical documents
SC: Printed documents
SC: Optimized documents
SC: Optimized delivery
SC: Labels and choice
Guideline 2.18: Involve users and contributors early in the project
SC: New features and perspectives
Guideline 2.19: Audit and test for bugs or issues requiring resolution
SC: Ongoing evaluation
SC: Non-regression tests
SC: Regression tests
SC: Performance testing
SC: Compliant measurement
Guideline 2.20: Verify that real-world users can successfully use your work
SC: Usage changes
SC: Usability testing
Guideline 2.21: Regularly test and maintain compatibility
SC: Compatibility policy
SC: Maintaining compatibility
SC: User constraints
SC: Progressive web applications (PWAs)
- Assessing the Impact of Service Workers on the Energy Efficiency of Progressive Web Apps [[SWPWA]]
- Evaluating the Impact of Caching on the Energy Consumption and Performance of Progressive Web Apps [[MPWA]]
- GreenIT
- 4019 - Prefer PWA over native mobile applications that are similar to the website
- Investigating the correlation between performance scores and energy consumption of mobile web apps [[PSEC]]
- PWA Builder
- Starbucks Ordering and Store Locator PWA
- The Carbon Impact of Web Standards [[CIWS]]
- Web Almanac: Sustainability [[ALMANAC]]
Web Development
Guideline 3.1: Set goals based on performance and energy impact
SC: Performance goals
SC: Energy intensity
Guideline 3.2: Remove unnecessary or redundant information
Guideline 3.3: Modularize bandwidth-heavy components
Guideline 3.4: Remove unnecessary code
Guideline 3.5: Avoid redundancy and duplication in code
SC: Remove or simplify
SC: Iteration over recreation
SC: Organize code arrangement
Guideline 3.6: Give third parties the same priority as first parties during assessment
SC: Assess and reduce
SC: Third-party implementation
SC: Self-hosting
SC: Third-party preferences
Guideline 3.7: Ensure code follows good semantic practices
SC: Semantic code
SC: Optional features
SC: Non-standard code
SC: Custom code
SC: Built-in over custom
Guideline 3.8: Defer the loading of non-critical resources
SC: Asynchronous code
SC: Optimized loading
Guideline 3.9: Provide information to help understand the usefulness of a page
Guideline 3.10: Validate form errors and account for tooling requirements
SC: Error validation
SC: Label elements
SC: Allow clipboard
Guideline 3.11: Structure metadata for machine readability
SC: Required elements
SC: Meta tags
SC: Structured data
Guideline 3.12: Sustainable CSS user preference media queries are used
SC: Media and preference queries
Guideline 3.13: Ensure layouts work for different devices and requirements
SC: Device-adaptable
SC: Progressive enhancement
SC: Carbon-aware design
SC: Alternative browsing
Guideline 3.14: Use standards-based JavaScript and APIs
SC: Sustainable JavaScript
SC: Sustainable APIs
SC: API requests
Guideline 3.15: Ensure that your code is secure
Guideline 3.16: Use dependencies appropriately and ensure maintenance
SC: Dependency management
SC: Dependency necessity
SC: Dependency updates
Guideline 3.17: Include expected and beneficial files
SC: Expected files
SC: Beneficial files
Guideline 3.18: Use the most efficient solution for your service
SC: Identify requirements
SC: Optimized methodology
SC: Static over dynamic
SC: Extensions and plugins
SC: Interface components
Guideline 3.19: Use the latest stable language version
SC: Versioning
SC: Language choice
Guideline 3.20: Reduce the number and complexity of database queries
Hosting, Infrastructure, and Systems
Guideline 4.1: Use sustainable hosting
SC: Sustainability metrics
SC: Equipment longevity
- 2020 Best Practice Guidelines for the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency (PDF)
- AWS WAF
- SUS05-BP01 - Use the minimum amount of hardware to meet your needs
- SUS05-BP04 - Optimize your use of hardware-based compute accelerators
- Best Practices Guide for Energy-Efficient Data Center Design [[EEDCD]] (PDF)
- Cloud Computing, Server Utilization, & the Environment
- Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency [[CCEEDC]]
- Data center emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse?
- Data Centres and Data Transmission Networks
- Data centres as a source of flexibility for power systems [[DATAFLEX]]
- Digital Reset (PDF)
- Energy Consumption in Data Centres and Broadband Communication Networks in the EU [[ECDCBC]]
- Equations relating total annual energy consumption and chips energy efficiency [[CEE]]
- Europe's consumption in a circular economy: the benefits of longer-lasting electronics [[EEA]]
- [[GPF]] - General Policy Framework for the Ecodesign of Digital Services
- 4.15 - UX and UI (Sustainability Tracking)
- 8.1 - Hosting (Hosting Provider)
- 8.2 - Hosting (Equipment Policy)
- 8.6 - Hosting (Local Datacenters)
- [[GR491]]
- 1-8017 - Datacenter Best Practices
- 4-8040 - Certified Equipment
- 6-8063 - Datacenter Certification
- Measuring the Emissions & Energy Footprint of the ICT Sector [[EEF-ICT]]
- New perspectives on internet electricity use in 2030 [[IEU]]
- Power and Energy Efficiency [[PAEE]]
- Promoting product longevity [[LIFESPAN]]
- Reporting requirements on the energy performance and sustainability of data centres for the Energy Efficiency Directive [[RREPDC]]
- Requirements for Energy Efficiency Management [[REEM]]
- Sustainable Procurement Guidelines for Data Centres and Servers (PDF)
- The environmental footprint of the digital world [[FOOTPRINT]]
- The staggering ecological impacts of computation and the cloud [[EICC]]
- The real climate and transformative impact of ICT [[CTICT]]
- United Nations [[SDGS]]
- Use Cases for Energy Efficiency Management [[UCEEM]]
- Where Cloud Meets Cement [[CEMENT]]
SC: Low-carbon electricity
SC: Remaining emissions
SC: Domain names
Guideline 4.2: Optimize caching and support offline access
SC: Caching resources
SC: Offline access
Guideline 4.3: Reduce data transfer with compression
SC: Server-side compression
SC: Media compression
Guideline 4.4: Setup necessary error pages and redirection links
SC: Error pages
SC: Redirection
Guideline 4.5: Avoid maintaining unnecessary virtualized environments or containers
Guideline 4.6: Use automation wisely
SC: Task automation
SC: Necessary tasks
SC: Automated scaling
SC: Suspicious activity management
Guideline 4.7: Define the frequency of data refreshes
Guideline 4.8: Back up critical data at routine intervals
Guideline 4.9: Consider the impact and requirements of data processing
SC: Batch processing
SC: Protocols
SC: Event-driven architecture
SC: Data processing efficiency
Guideline 4.10: CDN use must be proportionate and sustainable
SC: Global (CDNs)
SC: Sustainability commitment
SC: Local servers
- AWS WAF
- SUS01-BP01 - Choose Region based on both business requirements and sustainability goals
- SUS02-BP04 - Optimize geographic placement of workloads based on their networking requirements
- Consume Local: Towards Carbon Free Content Delivery [[LOCAL]]
- Design for environmental sustainability
- Edge computing
- Electricity Maps
- Geographical Server Relocation: Opportunities and Challenges [[GEO-OPC]]
- [[GPF]] - General Policy Framework for the Ecodesign of Digital Services
- 2.3 - Specifications (Connection Issues)
- 6.2 - Front-End (Caching Mechanisms)
- 6.7 - Front-End (Server Host)
- 7.1 - Back-End (Reusability Caching)
- 8.1 - Hosting (Hosting Provider)
- 8.5 - Hosting (Renewable Documentation)
- 8.6 - Hosting (Local Datacenters)
- [[GR491]]
- Internet Exchange Map
- Is my host fast yet?
- Microsoft Azure WAF
- Submarine Cable Map
- Towards Game-Theoretic Approaches to Attributing Carbon in Cloud Data Centers [[CARBON-CLOUD]]
- United Nations [[SDGS]]
SC: Inappropriate resources
SC: Efficient location
Guideline 4.11: Ensure infrastructure fits project requirements
Guideline 4.12: Store data according to the needs of your users
SC: Reduce redundancy
SC: Expiration dates
SC: Classify and tag
SC: Efficient storage
SC: Optimized logging
SC: Asset downloads
Business Strategy and Product Management
Guideline 5.1: Have an ethical and sustainable product strategy
SC: Public documents
SC: Achievements and compliance
SC: Governance over time
SC: Technology legislation
Guideline 5.2: Assign a sustainability advocate
SC: Advocate for sustainability
Guideline 5.3: Inform, raise awareness, and train for sustainability
SC: Inform and aware
SC: Routine training
SC: Active participation
SC: Training materials
SC: Incentivize progress
Guideline 5.4: Communicate the environmental impact of user choices
SC: Communication of impact
Guideline 5.5: Calculate the environmental impact
SC: Life-cycle assessment
SC: Competitor impact
SC: Tooling impact
Guideline 5.6: Define clear organizational sustainability goals and metrics
Guideline 5.7: Validate efforts using established third-party certifications
SC: Obtaining certifications
SC: Maintaining certifications
Guideline 5.8: Support mandatory disclosures and reporting
SC: Policies and practices
SC: Impact reports
SC: Standards and policies
SC: Impact reduction
Guideline 5.9: Create one or more impact business models
Guideline 5.10: Follow a product management and maintenance strategy
SC: Management and maintenance
SC: Planning strategy
SC: Resourcing products
SC: Resource measurement
SC: Failure indicators
Guideline 5.11: Implement continuous improvement procedures
SC: Continuous improvement
SC: Retrospectives conducted
SC: Iterative consideration
SC: Functionality decisions
SC: Security updates
SC: Skills and maintenance
Guideline 5.12: Document future updates and evolutions
Guideline 5.13: Establish if a digital product or service is necessary
SC: Sustainable Development Goals
SC: Creation evaluation
SC: Obstacle consideration
Guideline 5.14: Provide a supplier standards of practice document
SC: Vetting potential partners
SC: Collaborative measurement
SC: Informative partner promotion
Guideline 5.15: Share economic benefits
SC: Living wage
SC: Incentivisation
SC: Employee benefits
Guideline 5.16: Share decision-making power with affected parties
Guideline 5.17: Use Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (JEDI) practices
SC: JEDI practices
SC: Accessibility policy
SC: JEDI training
SC: JEDI improvements
Guideline 5.18: Promote responsible data practices
SC: Data practices
SC: Data ownership
Guideline 5.19: Implement appropriate data management procedures
SC: Outdated content
SC: Data controllers
Guideline 5.20: Establish responsible practices around AI and emerging or disruptive technologies
SC: AI and data collection
SC: Business adaptation
SC: Environmental responsibilities
- 3rd Global CryptoAsset Benchmarking Study [[CRYPTOBENCH]]
- A Computer Scientist Breaks Down Generative AI's Hefty Carbon Footprint
- A sustainable internet: Missing pieces to a healthy future
- AI and crypto mining are driving up data centers' energy use
- AI could account for nearly half of datacentre power usage 'by end of year'
- AI, data centers, and water
- AI emissions: What we know so far - and more importantly, what we don't know
- AI Energy Score
- AI Environmental Equity
- AI has an environmental problem
- AI Is Fueling a Data-Center Energy Crisis. A New Architecture Can Ease the Pressure.
- AI is set to drive surging electricity demand from data centres while offering the potential to transform how the energy sector works
- AI power demand rapidly escalating
- AI Will Spew Gas Fumes for Years Before the Nuclear Revolution Takes Off
- AI's Climate Impact Goes beyond Its Emissions
- AI's Environmental Impact: Making an Informed Choice
- Are harvest now, decrypt later cyberattacks actually happening?
- Beyond Counting Carbon [[BEYONDCARBON]]
- Big tech's selective disclosure masks AI's real climate impact
- Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index
- Carbon Emissions from AI and Crypto Are Surging and Tax Policy Can Help
- Carbon in Motion: Characterizing Open-Sora on the Sustainability of Generative AI for Video Generation [[CIM]]
- Carbontracker: Tracking and Predicting the Carbon Footprint of Training Deep Learning Models [[CTML]]
- ChatGPT energy usage is 0.34 Wh per query
- Crypto and blockchain must accept they have a problem, then lead in sustainability
- Cryptocurrency's Dirty Secret: Energy Consumption [[CRYPTO]]
- Data center energy and AI in 2025
- Datacenters to emit 3x more carbon dioxide because of generative AI
- Designing sustainable AI
- Digital aspects and the environment
- Dismantling the Quantum Threat [[QUANTUM]]
- Ecological Awareness for the Decentralized Web
- EMLIO: Minimizing I/O Latency and Energy Consumption for Large-Scale AI Training [[EMLIO]] (PDF)
- Energy and AI [[ENERGYAI]]
- The Energy and Environmental Footprint of AI [[FOOTPRINT-AI]] (PDF)
- Evaluating the Energy-Efficiency of the Code Generated by LLMs [[CODE-AI]] (PDF)
- Environmental impact and net-zero pathways for sustainable artificial intelligence servers in the USA [[AI-SERVERS]]
- From Efficiency Gains to Rebound Effects [[EFF-REBOUND]]
- Generating AI Images Uses as Much Energy as Charging Your Phone, Study Finds
- Generative AI is a climate disaster
- Generative AI's environmental costs are soaring — and mostly secret
- Google's still not giving us the full picture on AI energy use
- The GPT-OSS models are here… and they're energy-efficient!
- How AI and automation make data centers greener and more sustainable
- How Much Energy Does AI Use? The People Who Know Aren't Saying
- How much energy does Google's AI use? We did the math
- How off-grid solar microgrids can power the AI race
- How useful is GPU manufacturer TDP for estimating AI workload energy?
- Hype, Sustainability, and the Price of the Bigger-is-Better Paradigm in AI [[HYPE-AI]]
- Improving Carbon Emissions of Federated Large Language Model Inference through Classification of Task-Specificity [[CELLMTS]]
- In battle against climate crisis, don't overlook the blockchain
- Introducing a new AI metric to drive sustainability
- Jevons' Paradox is good sometimes
- Learning a Data Center Model for Efficient Demand Response [[DC-EDR]]
- Ledger of Harms
- Let's talk about AI and end-to-end encryption
- Measure environmental Impact of your AI Implementations
- Measuring the environmental impact of delivering AI at Google Scale [[AIG-IMPACT]] (PDF)
- More than Carbon: Cradle-to-Grave environmental impacts of GenAI training on the Nvidia A100 GPU [[C2G]] (PDF)
- New Method Forecasts Computation, Energy Costs for Sustainable AI Models
- Offline Energy-Optimal LLM Serving [[OFF-LLM]]
- Optimize AI Model Training and Inference
- Overestimating AI's water footprint
- Prioritize Sustainable AI Design
- Refine Architecture and Assess Latest Trend Impacts
- Sustainable Ux in VR (PPT)
- Sustainability of Bitcoin and its Impact on the Environment [[BITCOIN]]
- The carbon emissions of writing and illustrating are lower for AI than for humans
- The cyber-consciousness of environmental assessment [[CYBER]]
- The Environmental Impacts of AI
- The Environmental Impact of ChatGPT
- The growing energy footprint of artificial intelligence [[EFAI]]
- The Real Story on AI's Water Use-and How to Tackle It
- The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals [[AISDG]]
- Too Hot to Compute: The Water Crisis Behind Southeast Asia's Data Centre Boom
- Towards Carbon-efficient LLM Life Cycle [[CELLM]]
- Towards Sustainable Large Language Model Serving [[SLLM]]
- Turning AI Data Centers into Grid-Interactive Assets [[AI-GRID]]
- UK Government urged to promote, prioritise and invest in sustainable AI to become global leader in AI frugality and efficiency
- Ultra-efficient AI won't solve data centers' climate problem. This might
- Understanding the environmental impact of generative AI services [[GENAI]]
- United Nations [[SDGS]]
- Unveiling Environmental Impacts of Large Language Model Serving [[UELLM]]
- Water use in AI and Data Centres (PDF)
- Watts That Matter [[WATTS]]
- We did the math on AI's energy footprint. Here's the story you haven't heard
- We need to talk more about AI's environmental impact
- Web3 and Sustainability
- Web3 and sustainability: Benefits and risks
- What is the environmental impact of LLM use on the customer's side?
- Why Blockchain, NFTs, And Web3 Have A Sustainability Problem
SC: Automated tooling
SC: Quantum resilience
Guideline 5.21: Include responsible financial policies
SC: Fuel divestment
SC: Responsible finance
Guideline 5.22: Include organizational philanthropy policies
SC: Philanthropy policy
SC: Voluntary work
Guideline 5.23: Plan for a digital product or service's care and end-of-life
Guideline 5.24: Include e-waste, right to repair, and recycling policies
SC: E-waste management
SC: E-waste policy
SC: Recycling and repairing
SC: Refurbishment strategy
SC: Right to repair
Guideline 5.25: Define performance and environmental budgets
SC: Environmental budget
SC: Performance budget
SC: Human budget
SC: Measurable improvements
Guideline 5.26: Use open source where possible
SC: Open source policy
SC: Collaboration
SC: Contribution
Guideline 5.27: Create a business continuity and disaster recovery plan
SC: Plan of action
SC: Audience awareness
Acknowledgments
Additional information about participation in the Sustainable Web Interest Group can be found within the GitHub repository of the Interest Group.
Participants active in the development of this document
Alexander Dawson, Andrea Davanzo, Anne Faubry, Antoine Abélard, Arnaud Levy, Berwyn Powell, Brett Tackaberry, Dennis Lemm, Diogo Abrantes Da Silva, François Burra, Iain McClenaghan, Ines Akrap, Iulia Raluca Ionita, Ivano Malavolta, Jennifer Strickland, Jens Oliver Meiert, Josh Kim, Laurent Devernay Satyagraha, Mike Gifford, Morgan Murrah, Owen Rogers, Richard Ishida, Romuald Priol, Rose Newell, Thibaud Colas, Tim Frick, Tzviya Siegman