Copyright © 2023 the Contributors to the Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) 1.0 Specification, published by the Sustainable Web Design Community Group under the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement (CLA). A human-readable summary is available.
Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) 1.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making websites and products more sustainable. Following these guidelines which utilize environment, social, and governance (ESG) principles throughout the decision-making processes, you can minimize your environmental impact through a mixture of user-centered design, performant web development, renewable infrastructure, sustainable business strategy, and (with metrics) various combinations of those mentioned. It should be noted that these guidelines will not address every possible mechanism or strategy to become sustainable, as such, these guidelines (which are notably Web orientated and focused) should be seen as a starting point in a sustainability journey (coverage does not extend for example to manufacturing or shipping of physical products). Following these guidelines will often make Web content more accessible, usable, and performant as a by-product.
This specification was published by the Sustainable Web Design Community Group. It is not a W3C Standard nor is it on the W3C Standards Track. Please note that under the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement (CLA) there is a limited opt-out and other conditions apply. Learn more about W3C Community and Business Groups.
This document has been reviewed by Community Group members and interested parties. This is a draft document which may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than a work in progress. The Community Group's role in publishing is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment.
By publishing these guidelines, the Community Group does not expect that the work produced in this specification will affect the work undertaken by other W3C sustainability, accessibility, or performance groups. The Community Group will continue to track these Working Groups and Community Groups as appropriate. This specification does closely align itself with the principles laid down for Web Platform Design [design-principles], Privacy [privacy-principles], and the Ethical Web [ethical-web-principles].
There are two methods of providing feedback regarding this specification. The first is using GitHub. It is free to create a GitHub account to file issues. If filing issues in GitHub is not feasible, email our open discussion group public-sustyweb@w3.org (comment archive). Comments received on the specification cannot result in changes to this version of the guidelines, but may be addressed in errata or future versions of WSG. A list of issues filed as well as archives of the mailing list discussions are publicly available. There is currently no preliminary interoperability or implementation report, however potential implementation strategies alongside filtering and categorization of guidelines will be showcased within the Sustainable Web Design website.
GitHub Issues are preferred for discussion of this specification.
This section is non-normative.
In 1999, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines [WCAG21] defined a set of baseline guidance for Web content developers and creators of authoring tools, with the primary goal of promoting Web accessibility through the adoption of inclusive strategies. Through a similar methodology, the Web Sustainability Guidelines promote environmental, social, and economic best practices based on measurable, evidence-based research; aimed at end-users, Web workers, stakeholders, tool authors, educators, and policymakers, with the primary goal of reducing harm to the wider ecosystem (regarding people and the planet) through sustainable strategy adoption.
For those unfamiliar with sustainability issues pertaining to the Web, consider that many variables [VARIABLES] may contribute to waste or emissions being produced online.
Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) 1.0 is developed in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world. It does so with a goal of providing a shared strategy for Web sustainability that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally. WSG 1.0 is designed to apply broadly to different existing Web technologies, and to be testable with a combination of automated testing and human evaluation.
Web sustainability depends not only on sustainable websites and products but also on sustainable Web browsers and other user agents, examples include the performance of rendering and the accurate measuring of website energy use through developer tooling. Authoring tools also have an important role in Web sustainability, by ensuring performant code, reducing waste, and the results are served in the most sustainable way possible.
Significant challenges were encountered finding existing research data to both identify and establish guidance for all the variables which affect Web sustainability, which came as no surprise with the subject being such an emerging and rapidly evolving field. Work will continue in this area in future versions of WSG.
The individuals and organizations that use WSG 1.0 vary widely and include Web designers and developers, policymakers, purchasing agents, teachers, and students. To meet the varying needs of this audience, several layers of guidance are provided including general guidelines, testable success criteria, impact and effort ratings, advisory potential benefits, documented examples, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) ratings, evidence-based links, and category tags.
All of these layers of guidance (guidelines, success criteria, impact, effort, benefits, reporting, examples, resources, and tags) work together to provide guidance on how to make content more sustainable. Authors are encouraged to view and apply all layers that they can (relevance, time, or budget permitting), including the advisory techniques, in order to best make their product or service the most sustainable it can become. It should be considered that while great care has been taken to make these guidelines as well-rounded and feature-complete as possible, there will likely be additional tasks authors can perform to improve sustainability which this specification failed to address due to (for example) new techniques becoming available.
At the top are six principles that provide the foundation for Web Sustainability: clean, efficient, open, honest, regenerative and resilient.
Under the principles are guidelines. These guidelines provide the basic goals that authors should work toward to make content more sustainable. The guidelines provide the framework and overall objectives to help authors understand the success criteria, which are testable against, to implement better digital solutions. This specification groups guidelines within four categories (User-Experience Design, Web Development, Infrastructure, Product and Business) that overarches Web worker specialisms. It should, however, be noted that while many of these guidelines are curated into categories for simplicity, often they are not limited to a single group and can be utilized within other specialisms for a sustainability benefit. They also come equipped with tags which can be utilized by third party user-agent tools to filter the criteria based upon journeys, categories, preferences, or additional variables to benefit the author during the implementation process.
These guidelines also come with both an impact and effort rating system. Unlike Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) which uses A to AAA (or in the future, Bronze to Gold) against each guideline as a method of testing levels of conformance; WSG 1.0 uses a system of Low, Medium, or High ratings to reduce the burden for individuals to identify quick wins or minimal implementations from long-term benefits or heavy refactoring encouraging a policy of progress over perfection.
Impact:
Effort:
It should be noted that the coverage of impact and effort may be left open to interpretation, due to the broad and varying nature of how variables can benefit the wider ecosystem. For example, a guideline may have a low impact on preserving water but a high impact on preserving electricity. As such, the nature of benefits is nuanced and may require more in-depth analysis if authors wish to target specific environmental concerns such as water, paper, or mineral waste. This is partially addressed by GRI reporting methodologies, however for the purposes of impact and effort ratings may be something the community group could address in a future version of the specification to give more targeted advice toward special interest groups wishing to reduce a type of emission.
For each guideline, testable success criteria are provided. WSG 1.0 success criteria are written as testable statements that are not technology-specific. Guidance about satisfying the success criteria in specific technologies, as well as general information about interpreting the success criteria, is provided in separate documents or within third-party sources as cited evidence.
For each of the guidelines and success criteria in the WSG 1.0 document itself, the community group has also documented a wide variety of potential benefits. The benefits are informative and may potentially justify scope for compliance with the specification. Examples (where possible) and Resources (third-party evidence-based links) are provided to allow authors to better address the guidelines through implementation and specific techniques.
Furthermore, for those requiring guidelines to be linked to a standardized methodology which can be used in reporting the digital sustainability conformance levels of a business, a section on GRI compliance is provided.
GRI Impact:
As with impact and effort ratings, a similar scoring methodology has been used within each rating section.
For the purposes of this specification, an open source Jupyter Notebook was created. As an input, it takes a spreadsheet containing all the guidelines and (using low, medium, or high) their indicators of impact on reduction of server resource usage, network transfer and end user device usage. Then it takes data from a GreenIT Report [GREENIT] which estimates the environmental impact of the mentioned categories across material use, water use, energy use and GHG emissions. It then combines these datasets and estimates the comparative impact of a given recommendation on different sections of GRI taxonomy.
As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative. The main normative content of WSG 1.0 is composed of guidelines and success criteria, which define requirements that impact conformance claims. Non-normative material provides advisory information to help interpret the guidelines, but does not create requirements that impact a conformance claim.
This section lists requirements for conformance to WSG 1.0. It also provides information about how to make conformance claims, which are optional.
The WSG's approach to conformance differs from WCAG in that in preference to having conformance levels, these guidelines are robustly built so that they can be implemented over time, in a non-specific order, and each will provide some measurable sustainability benefit. As such, conformance is measured upon the implementation of each guideline (and its success criteria being met) across the whole website or product.
Although total conformance can technically be achieved by meeting every guideline within the specification, not every website or product, as a general policy, will likely be able to satisfy all Success Criteria. In such situations, it is not recommended that authors prioritize conformance over other important website features.
Conformance claims are not required. Authors can conform to WSG 1.0 without making a claim. If a conformance claim is made, then the conformance claim must include the following information:
The WSG 1.0 document is designed to meet the needs of those who need a stable, referenceable technical specification. Other documents, called supporting documents, are based on this document and address other important purposes, including providing further techniques regarding implementation strategies, guiding authors through the guidelines which apply to their use-case, and how WSG 1.0 would be applied to new technologies.
WSG 1.0 meets a set of requirements for WSG 1.0 which, in turn, inherit requirements from any prior versions. Requirements structure the overall framework of guidelines and ensure backwards compatibility. The Community Group also used a less formal set of acceptance criteria for success criteria which is based around evidence supported practices grouped by their impact and implementation upon the Web ecosystem. This allows for further expansion in future versions while maintaining a strict grouping of related (and overlapping) guidelines.
WSG 1.0 was initiated with the goal of improving Web Sustainability guidance. As no prior version exists, the initial draft was created through initial Community Group meetings, proposals (laid out in meeting minutes), and early draft guidelines were drawn up and refined, leading to the guidelines included in this version. The Community Group considers that WSG 1.0 incrementally advances Web Sustainability in numerous areas, but underscores that not all potential environmental improvements are met by these guidelines.
There are many variables which can impact the user-experience, and a bunch of these can impact how sustainable your website will be. Attempting to identify where you can make a difference to the visitor and give them a more sustainable experience will be beneficial.
List the negative external variables and identify where your product's sustainable impact can be diminished (systemic design).
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, Ideation, Research, Compatibility, Performance, Hardware, Software, Networking, Reporting
When creating a product or service, identifying your target audience through user-research, analytics data collected using ethical anonymous methods, or feedback from visitor's is important in being able to create a customized service for them which is tailor-made for their specific preferences, adapted for any needs they may have, and particularly useful in helping a website or application evolve it's service to meet sustainability targets.
Primary and secondary target visitors are identified, and their needs defined through quantitative or qualitative research, testing, or analytics.
Potential visitor constraints like the device age, operating system version, browser, and connection speeds are considered when designing user-experiences.
The team has researched and identified whether a technical, material, or human constraint might require an adapted version of the product or service that reduces barriers or improves access to content.
In the user-research, identify if some barriers should be removed (pain points or dark patterns).
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, UI, Patterns, Ideation, Research, Usability, Compatibility, Reporting, KPIs
If you provide physical goods or services, you may also have to account for the sustainability impact of delivery services. This can often be tricky, but courier companies may provide useful tooling to help you identify emissions data for routing.
Consider non-users and other stakeholders who might be passively impacted by a digital product or service, such as neighbors accepting parcels, traffic jams due to deliveries, etc. Research their needs and understand how they might be affected.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Ideation, Research, Usability, Hardware, E-Waste, Reporting, KPIs, Marketing
While some things require the use of electricity, during the early ideation phase you could consider wireframing or rapid prototyping (using paper) among other offline tools to reduce energy consumption. Even the electronic versions of these may have a lower carbon cost than committing to building a full-blown experience for each idea.
Utilize wireframes, user-testing, and rapid prototyping to quickly build consensus, reduce risk, and lower the number of resources needed to build features.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Ideation, Research, Software, Strategy
Brainstorming allows you to flush out ideas before you commit to pursuing a path. Being considerate of not just your visitor's but other individuals who may be affected by your product or service (including non-humans, like the environment!) is a useful practical exercise as it may influence your decisions in how you scope your project.
In the brainstorming process, consider all stakeholders using a human-centered approach.
In the brainstorming process, take the planetary needs and ecological boundaries into account.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, Ideation, Research, Strategy, KPIs
When providing the option to download, save, print, or access anything online, defaulting to the most lightweight, least featureful version will reduce emissions through passive browsing; with non-essential information removed from the screen either to be shown when it's required or eliminated entirely.
Prioritize performance optimization as a product or service's default approach.
The path taken to access the service (the initial contact with the website or service) should be as efficient and as simple as possible (time required to complete an action displayed, reducing too much choice, ensuring visitor's know what's required at the start of a complex set of steps, etc).
Make your user-journey (when browsing an accessed website or service) as smooth as possible. User-research is key, as is building on established design patterns which people already understand.
Visitor's can complete tasks without distractions or non-essential features getting in the way.
Visitor's see only information that is relevant to their experience, without non-essential information being displayed on the screen.
Ensure that actionable information such as pop-up or modal windows can only be initiated by the visitor.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Content, UI, Patterns, Usability, Performance
It's great to have a pretty looking website or application, but to ensure a sustainable design, it's important to avoid cluttering up the interface with too many visuals (which aren't necessary to the content). Keeping a clean design will reduce data transfer, and thereby emissions.
Decorative design is used only when it improves the user-experience, and unnecessary assets or ones that fail to benefit the visitor or sustainability are removed (or rendered optional and disabled by default).
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Usability, Assets, Performance
Time is precious, wasting a visitor's will cause frustration and lead to abandonment or resentment. Additionally, the more time a visitor spends in front of a screen, the more energy they utilize. As such, throwing stuff in front of the visitor vying for their attention might sound like good business (even though we know due to banner blindness it rarely works), it mostly damages the environment and dissuades the visitor.
Respect a visitor's attention by allowing them to easily control how (and when) they receive information.
Prioritizes features that don't distract people or unnecessarily lengthen the time they spend using the product or service.
Avoid using infinite scroll or related attention-keeping tactics.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Patterns, Usability, Assets
Visitor's can identify patterns fairly easily, and they like browsing websites and apps and feeling as if they know what they are dealing with. As such, focusing your efforts on producing a product or service that is clean and has key components in easy to recognize locations (and visuals) will allow faster user-experiences and fewer emissions.
Provide only essential components visible at the time they are needed. Where appropriate, interfaces should deploy visual styles (patterns) that are easily recognized and used.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Patterns, Usability, Assets, CSS
Manipulating the visitor into doing things you want them too is a short-term gain, long-term loss tactic tool. It's ethically bad, unsustainable and should be avoided at all costs.
Avoid what are commonly known as dark patterns, deceptive design, or unethical coding techniques, which manipulate visitor's into taking actions not necessarily in their best interest (anti-right click, no-copy, requiring an account to purchase, etc).
Advertisements and sponsorships are both ethical and clearly identified with the product or service, only presenting them when they provide real economic and ethical value and don't diminish a visitor's experience.
Remove unused and unconsented page tracking.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, UI, Patterns, Usability, Compatibility, Assets, JavaScript, Security, JavaScript, Security, Privacy
Design systems allow common components and patterns to be formalized and managed within a website or application. By using such a tool, designers and developers can avoid reinventing existing tooling and thereby reduce wasted time (and emissions).
Employ a design system based on web standards and recognizable patterns to mutualize interface components and provide a consistent experience for visitor's.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Patterns, Education, Usability, Assets, Strategy
Everyone should be able to understand what you've written without wasting time staring at a screen or jumping from page-to-page looking for answers, whether they have accessibility requirements or not. This also means avoiding using technical language (without explanations) and including enough information to help direct people (and search engines) from page to page.
Write clearly using plain, inclusive language delivered at an easy-to-understand reading level considering accessibility and internationalization inclusions as required (for example, dyslexia).
Deliver content formatted in ways that support how people read online, including a clear document structure, visual hierarchy, headings, bulleted lists, line spacing, and so on.
Prioritize SEO at early design stages and throughout a product or service's lifecycle to improve content findability.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, Content, UI, Usability
Of all the data which comprises the largest over-the-wire transfer rates within the average website or application, images are usually those which are responsible due to their quantity and usefulness. As such, doing all you can to reduce their size and unnecessary loading will be beneficial for reducing emissions.
Assess the need for images considering the quantity, format, and size necessary for implementation.
Resize, optimize and compress each image (outside the browser), offering different sizes (for each image) for different screen resolutions.
Provide Lazy Loading to ensure image assets only loads when they are required.
Let the visitor select the display size, and provide the option to deactivate images.
Set up a media management and use policy to reduce the overall impact of images, with criteria for media compression and file formats.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, UI, Usability, Assets, HTML, Performance, Software
Video and audio heavy websites are often those which can have the highest emissions costs in terms of data transfer, storage usage, and carbon intensity for viewers who have to process the media with their devices to watch them (draining batteries). Optimizing such assets as much as possible is critical for a sustainable product or service.
Assess the need for video or sound usage (including only when they add visitor value), and will ban non-informative media (background media) including autoplaying functionality.
Choose the right media to display by compressing according to the visitor's requirements, selecting the appropriate format, ensuring it works across browsers, and avoiding embedded player plugins.
Increase visitor awareness and control by informing them of the length, format, and weight of the media; allowing media deactivation, and giving a choice of resolutions; all while providing alternative resolutions and formats.
Set up a media management and use policy to reduce the overall impact of audio and video, with criteria for media compression and file formats.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, UI, Usability, Assets, HTML, Performance, Software
Animation can be both CPU and GPU intensive and have implications for accessibility. While visually appealing and useful in certain situations, care and attention should be taken when considering the use of a high emissions' technology.
Use animation only when it adds value to a visitor's experience, and not for decorative elements.
Progressively display an appropriate quantity of animation so as not to overburden the visitor or diminish expected device behavior.
Allow visitor's to start, stop, pause or otherwise control animated content.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Accessibility, UI, Usability, CSS, JavaScript, Performance
Since the advent of the modern web, the ability to include embedded fonts and provide a more customized experience has seen their use explode. They aren't always the most performant option (which poses emissions hazards) and come with a few issues such as Flash Of Unstyled Content (FOUC) / Flash Of Unstyled Text (FOUT) which should be addressed.
Use standard system level (web-safe / pre-installed) fonts as much as possible.
Ensure the number of fonts, and the variants within typefaces (such as weight and characters) are limited within a project, using the most performant file format available.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Usability, CSS, Performance
Media, images, and fonts enrich the Internet. The problem is, people may not want to watch a video, listen to an audio file, or even look at an image. By providing alternative formats to anything you embed, you ensure the widest possible audience can benefit from it (and reduced carbon output will occur as alternative text uses far less data than it's rich media alternative).
All proprietary file formats should also be offered in HTML for accessibility and to ensure future availability.
All custom typefaces (using font-display) should be subsetted and offered as part of a font stack with a system font as backup.
All images should provide meaningful alternative text for screen reader users (or when images fail to load) accessibility.
Audio should provide text transcripts of conversations as an alternative to playing the media.
Video should provide text transcripts (at minimum), subtitles (using WebVTT), and for accessibility best practice, offer closed captions and sign language options.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, Content, UI, Usability, Compatibility, Assets, HTML, Performance
It's understandable that businesses want to know more about their customers, but a key part of sustainability is being ethical towards visitors and as such, the right to privacy is considered paramount. Don't demand information when it's not required and not only will this help visitors complete transactions quicker (reducing emissions), it will help with legal compliance such as GDPR.
Assess the need for forms and reduce form content to the bare minimum necessary to meet the visitor's needs and the organization's business goals. Clearly communicate why a form is necessary, what its value proposition is, how many steps it will take to complete, and what an organization will do with collected data (informed consent).
Avoid auto-completion / auto-suggest if it would prove unhelpful (to conserve bandwidth) whilst allowing autofill for ease of repeat entry (including the use of helpful tooling such as password managers).
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, UI, Usability, HTML, Privacy
Certain visitor's such as those with visual disabilities or speech agents (like Amazon Alexa) may rely on an experience without the graphical part of an interface. As such, they potentially may use less data or may have a different carbon impact on the Web.
Support speech browsing and other non-graphical ways to interact with content that provide alternatives to a visual interface.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, Content, UI, Usability, Compatibility, HTML, Performance, Software
Notifications whether through the browser or through messaging can be potentially useful, but only used in moderation. Spam and the lack of control are contributing sources of Internet emissions and as such, businesses should aim to reduce such actions.
Remove non-essential notifications while justifying and reducing the practice of e-mailing or text messaging to what is strictly necessary. Useful notifications (such as alerts for new content) should be used with care and restraint.
Let the visitor control notifications (for example through the browser, SMS, or by email) and adjust messaging preferences, and the option to unsubscribe, logout, and close account should be available and visible.
Help visitor's manage expectations by clearly explaining the result of a potential input through helpful prompts and messages that explain errors, next steps, and so on.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Usability, JavaScript, Privacy
Printing or downloading documents can both be a net benefit and a net cost in terms of sustainability as it can reduce repeat requests to websites, but the act of printing (especially when unoptimized) wastes valuable ink and paper.
Design documents to limit the printing impact. If the production of paper documents is essential, it should be designed to limit its impact to the lowest possible. Create a CSS Print stylesheet and test it with different types of content. Ensure PDF printing is encouraged over paper-based storage.
Offer optimized, compressed documents in a variety of accessible file formats.
Display clearly the document name, a summary, the file size, and the format, allowing the visitor a choice if possible of both the format, and the language (if not the same as the web page). Furthermore, be sure to avoid embedding the document within Web pages (provide a direct link to download or view within the browser instead).
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, UI, Usability, Compatibility, Assets, Performance, Hardware, Software, E-Waste
The organization has policies and practices in place to incorporate stakeholder-focused testing and prototyping into its product development cycles.
The organization has outlined processes it uses to prototype and test new features, product ideas, and user-interface components when applicable with real users who represent various stakeholder perspectives, including people with slow connection, with disabilities, with difficulties using digital services and so on.
The organization has appropriately resourced these processes to support its long-term product viability.
The organization has training materials to onboard new product team members to these practices.
The organization regularly conducts extensive testing and user interviews to validate whether released features are meeting both business goals and visitor needs.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, UI, Ideation, Research, Education, Usability, Governance
Products and services at any stage of a project can suffer bugs or issues which need to be resolved. Fixing these regressions also generates additional development and environmental costs. By resolving such issues, you can reduce the chances of a visitor giving up on a session and thereby reduce the amount of wasted energy your website emits overall.
Check your codebase for bugs, identify any performance issues, and account for accessibility or security problems at either monthly or quarterly timeframes (depending on your scheduling allowance).
Non-regression tests are implemented for all important functionality.
Incorporate regression testing into each release cycle to ensure that new features don't introduce bugs or otherwise conflict with existing software functionality.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, UI, Research, Usability, Compatibility, Performance, Security, Privacy, Reporting, KPIs
Try to ethically measure how efficient a visitor's experience is, by doing so you might be able to reduce any issues they may have encountered previously and reduce the energy burden of loading unnecessary pages.
Only collect the data required to provide a streamlined and effective user-journey, put policies in place to ensure strict adherence, and comply to relevant accessibility policies and privacy laws, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Accessibility, Research, Usability, Performance, Networking, Strategy, KPIs
Occasionally, you may find that features you have developed for a product or service have little to no active users or could be better implemented to bring better value. Undertaking research to identify redundancy allows you to optimize your codebase (and reduce emissions).
Consider visitor feedback and monitor adoption and churn rates of product or service features, incorporating insights into future releases.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Research, Usability, Strategy, KPIs
Researching a product or service and how it is used over time allows you to iterate and ensure the features and functionality being offered match how user-needs change over time. Doing so will help you reduce code redundancy further and reduce emissions through optimization.
Incorporate usability testing into product cycles and measure the impact of these tests for future releases.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, UI, Research, Usability, Strategy, KPIs
Compatibility is a critical part of the sustainability mindset and should be prioritized through all products and services. If individuals wish to use older devices (or cannot upgrade due to cost), or do not wish to upgrade as frequently, it will reduce the amount of e-waste which enters the system. If something doesn't work, it's also likely to result in visitor's suffering a wasted effort or are refused access to your service (and thereby emit further emissions).
Establish a policy for compatibility with obsolete devices and software versions, listing the supported devices brands, operating systems, and browsers (including versions).
Avoid planned obsolescence in software updates, striving to maintain compatibility for as long as possible and clearly communicating whether an update is evolutionary (large updates that can significantly reduce performance) or corrective (smaller updates that fix bugs or improve security).
Regularly test the product or service with weak connections, old browsers, and on devices older than five years to ensure compatibility.
Prototype your interfaces using mobile-first methods to ensure progressive enhancement, content prioritization, and improved accessibility.
Consider whether a PWA will be more sustainable and compatible over a native mobile application.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, UI, Research, Usability, Compatibility, Software, Security, Strategy, KPIs
Performance is a key part of the sustainability mindset as reductions in loading times can have a considerable impact on energy loads within CPU, GPU, RAM and hard drive caching (among other variables), as such ensuring a performant product is essential.
Set performance goals which impact the environment and performance of the service, for example HTTP requests or the amount of DOM elements which need to render.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Research, Performance, Networking, Strategy, KPIs
Whitespace holds no value when it's being presented to the visitor (unless they view the source code), by using minification, valuable data savings can be made which will reduce loading times.
All source code is minified upon compilation (including inline code).
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Performance
When dealing with heavy components (such as JavaScript), the ability to modularize them into smaller pieces which can be loaded as and when required reduces the amount of redundancy and serves as a great way to make your scripts more sustainable.
Breakdown bandwidth heavy components into segments that can be loaded as required.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: CSS, JavaScript, Performance
Often when coding, projects can accumulate clutter and functions which are no longer used (due to newer, more effective features being developed). By utilizing tree shaking techniques, all the "dead wood" will be automatically dropped upon compile, reducing a file's size.
Identify and eliminate unused and dead code within CSS and JavaScript.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: CSS, JavaScript, Performance
Not everyone can access services equally, being sustainable is also about being accessible, fair, ethical and ensuring that your product or service doesn't discriminate. As such, ensuring your website complies with best-practices and relevant laws whilst meeting the needs of your visitor's is critical as well as good business.
Your website or application must conform to WCAG (at the necessary level), plus extend beyond to obey relevant laws and meet additional visitor accessibility requirements. Building inclusively means that people with permanent, temporary or situational disabilities will be able to more quickly find what they are looking for, and not have to spend extra time searching for a way to use your product or service.
Enhance your website or application with Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) ONLY if applicable or necessary, and accessibility enhancing features when useful or beneficial.
Deploy solutions which fight against electronic inequalities in products and services.
To maximize use of renewable energy, adapt your website or service to electricity availability using carbon aware design techniques.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, Content, UI, Research, Usability, Compatibility, Software, KPIs
Redundancy is the enemy of sustainability. Having systems in place to ensure that everyone can work from established patterns, the website, or application remains clean and easy to use, and iteration over redesign is firmly in the mindset will help promote a sustainable practice.
Don't be afraid to remove or simplify (through rewriting for performance) your code to focus on essential features and have a cleaner, less redundant product (and codebase).
Improve (iterate) an existing creation rather than constantly redeveloping and redesigning products from scratch (duplication of coding effort) if possible to reduce visitor learning burden and developer impact.
Within CSS and JavaScript, use methodologies (like BEM) and systems like DRY to optimize the arrangement and output of your source code.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Patterns, CSS, JavaScript, Performance
Whether advertising, chatbots, maps or other tooling; outsourcing your service to a third-party provider may be potentially useful in certain scenarios in reducing design or development time and redundancy (which can be a win for sustainability). Third-party services, however, come with issues, such as the lack of control over emissions, and they often can potentially suffer from latency and large file sizes which may not exist if you self-hosted or created the material.
Assess third-party services (including plugins, widgets, feeds, maps, carousels, etc) as early in the ideation or creation process as possible and use as few as possible to reduce the product or service's overall ecological impact, including Scope 3 emissions.
Third-party content (including plugins, widgets, feeds, maps, carousels, etc) should be placed behind a click to load delay screen (using the "import on interaction" pattern), while alternatives to automated solutions such as chatbots should be offered.
Large CSS libraries and JavaScript frameworks should only be used if a more performant alternative which achieves the same goal cannot be used instead.
Prioritize self-hosted content over embedded content from third-party services.
Create your own clickable icons and widgets, rather than relying on third-party services to host or allow embedding within your product or service.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Usability, JavaScript, Performance, Software, Security, Privacy
HTML semantics are important. They don't just play a key role in making the Web look the way it does, they have a function in accessibility, in SEO, and even in sustainability. Ensuring that you markup your content correctly and avoid cluttering your markup wastefully will reduce emissions.
Ensure content is marked up semantically using the right HTML element for the right job.
Avoid using non-standard elements or attributes.
Only use custom elements or Web Components if you cannot utilize native HTML elements or if you need tightly regulated control over the implementation of design system components.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, Content, Usability, Compatibility, HTML
The ability to work around render blocking issues is a great addition to the web. From deferring code, to lazy loading, to asynchronously loading, each has its own use-case and each can have the potential to reduce give performance benefits to a website or application.
All external assets should be deferred or set to async (unless required) to avoid FOUC (Flash Of Unstyled Content).
If external resources are required on load, ensure their priorities (delivery route) are set correctly.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Assets, CSS, JavaScript, Performance
Helping visitors avoid wasting their time can reduce the number of emissions from time spent in front of a screen. As such, by using existing technologies like metadata, robots files, and accessibility friendly aids within the page, improvements to the experience can be made.
Optimize your metadata and microdata for search engines and social media.
Assist search engines, while blocking any ill intentioned robots and scripts.
Offer accessibility and usability aids to find content, such as skip links and signposts.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Accessibility, UI, Usability, HTML, Marketing
Entering information on a page can lead to problems. If a visitor makes a mistake along the way, it makes good sense to have systems in place to guide them through resolving the typos, confusion, and glitches that can occur which lead to abandonment and extra emissions.
Errors should be identified through live validation as well as upon submission.
Required elements should be clearly identified and labeled (for the benefits of voice tools such as screen readers and virtual assistants), and optional elements (if unnecessary) removed.
Always allow pasting of content (including passwords) from external sources.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Accessibility, UI, Usability, Compatibility, HTML, Security
Search engines and social networks make use of the content within a website, by ensuring that your metadata is correctly marked up, you can reduce emissions by improving way-finding.
Include the required title element, plus any optional HTML head elements (such as link).
Include necessary meta tag references which search engines and social networks recognize, using a recognized name scheme such as Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), Friend Of A Friend (FOAF) or RDFa.
Embed Microdata, Structured Data (Schema) or Microformats within your pages.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Accessibility, Usability, HTML, Marketing
Website emissions can be generated in numerous ways, some of the latest which can be controlled are through CSS preference queries. By offering the ability to stop animation, remove colors, give a print friendly format, adjust to the available lighting or even offer a less bandwidth hungry version of a page (based on visitor demand), we can provide a less impactful journey.
Account for light-level, monochrome, prefers-contrast, prefers-color-scheme, prefers-reduced-data, prefers-reduced-motion, print & scripting CSS preferences.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Accessibility, UI, Usability, Assets, CSS
Visitor's approach our products and services on a wide variety of devices these days. Ensuring that your device works on the widest range of devices and differing screen resolutions ensures that you will have a compatible website or application. As such, visitor's can actively choose to browse on devices which emit less carbon if they wish.
Allow a website or app to work on mobile devices primarily (testing with various connection speeds), expanding to accommodate larger displays thereafter (mobile-first). It is much more effective to do the hard work to ensure that it works well on a mobile device and then scale it up to larger interfaces.
Utilize progressive enhancement and responsive web design to ensure that your work accommodates a device's capabilities, different screen sizes, and will not fail if it meets an unsupported technology.
Consider supporting other indirect methods of interaction such as voice (speech), code (QR, etc), reader view (browser, application, or RSS), or connected-technology (watch, appliance, transport, etc).
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Usability, Compatibility, CSS, Performance
When new best practices or if beneficial scripting guidance exists which will improve the visitor experience, following it should be of the highest priority (only using scripts ethically should be promoted).
Improve sustainability through accessible and performant code implementations.
When using an API, make sure you only call it when necessary. On the other side, make sure no unrequired data is sent by the API.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Accessibility, JavaScript, Security
The dangers of scripting are well known, and vulnerabilities are discovered with increasing regularity. As such, it's of ethical benefit for authors to ensure all code used regularly passes security processes.
Check the code for vulnerabilities, exploits, header issues, and code injection.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, JavaScript, Security, Privacy
While JavaScript may not cause the most website bloat, it can cause very high emissions in terms of CPU load due to the rendering process, thereby it makes sense to consider the use of dependancies and third-party code carefully.
Prevent developers from downloading and installing JavaScript libraries to run locally (client-side) when they are not needed by checking for unused dependencies and uninstalling those that aren't needed and removing them from your package.json file.
Reduce the amount of JavaScript that has to be downloaded and parsed by the browser by only using libraries where necessary. Consider whether you can use a native JavaScript API instead. Check the package size using a tool like Bundlephobia, and whether individual modules can be installed and imported rather than the whole library.
Regularly check dependencies and keep them up-to-date.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Patterns, JavaScript, Performance, Software, Security
Search engines and browsers regularly examine websites, requesting specific files by default (they expect them to exist). If the files don't exist, this will lead to potential errors and emissions being caused when they could be created, especially as the files offer SEO, user-experience and other benefits to visitor's.
Take advantage of the favicon.ico, robots.txt, opensearch.xml, site.webmanifest and sitemap.xml documents.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Patterns, Compatibility, Assets, Marketing
There are several small assets which can be included within a website, conferring a range of benefits upon the website or application that utilizes them. They each have a low carbon footprint, so while they do create emissions, it's worth including them for the benefits they provide.
Utilize standards such as ads.txt, carbon.txt, humans.txt, security.txt and robots.txt.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Patterns, Security
The Web is full of dead, often proprietary code, created using standards which have been superseded or by groups which aren't recognized. By following recognized coding standards, you ensure that your code will be rendered properly by browsers (and reduce the potential for added emissions occurring from unmaintained rendering processes).
Upgrading or avoiding deprecated formats is important, the only exception being if consumer support demands maintaining older standards to provide a functional product.
Don't use an older standard if a newer recommendation will do the same job as or more effectively.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Accessibility, Compatibility, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Performance
Every product or service is different, and each will require a different set of tooling to accomplish the most sustainable result. Deciding whether to go with a bulky framework or a Content Management System (CMS) takes careful planning based on client or service requirements.
List (and choose carefully) the requirements of the product or service. A simpler technological implementation may use more human resources, but could have a smaller footprint. A prebuilt solution may use more system resources (and thereby produce more emissions upon render) but have a faster build-time (emitting less carbon during development).
As a general rule, coding from scratch is the best performing methodology (though if an existing solution is actively maintained, it may be better optimized than what you could produce). Therefore, prefer native components and file systems to a WYSIWYG editor or heavy framework, and be considerate of the impact of third-party solutions.
Plugins, extensions, and themes have been carefully reviewed and selected to maximize interoperability, accessibility, and performance. They are regularly audited over time to ensure continued compatibility.
Make sure all the components of the user-interface are the subject of special attention in terms of its sustainability impact, while respecting accessibility and the performance of such components.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Ideation, Compatibility, Performance, Strategy
Languages evolve regularly, and it's important for security and performance reasons to keep on-top of the technology stack you are using.
Use the latest build of your chosen syntax language and its coupled framework.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Compatibility, Performance, Security
Ensuring that your code is free of redundancy by using pre-existing functionality provided by the web browser is important as it will help you to reduce the amount of time wasted, re-creating the same components, this offers obvious sustainability benefits in terms of time in front of the screen.
Use native functions, API's and features over writing your own.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Patterns, Compatibility, HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Making multiple requests whether HTTP or within a database has a carbon cost as infrastructure has to send that information back and forth. As such, managing how you store and use data locally for a visitor will help reduce wasted cycles.
If you need information that is stored in a database, and you require it more than once in your code, access the database only once, store the data in a variable for subsequent processing.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Performance, Networking
In addition to reducing the environmental impacts of a website, choose a hosting service that mitigates remaining impacts. To make sure of this, there are many criteria to look for.
To assess the environmental impacts of hosting and detect overconsumption, some indicators should be monitored: energy / water usage, CPU / Memory usage, allocation of servers and CPU cores, etc. These indicators could be used to calculate metrics directly related to environmental impacts, such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) and Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE). They could be displayed to visitor's for transparency and monitoring reasons.
Manage equipment responsibly by keeping them as long as possible, using them as efficiently as possible, making sure they are certified, and purchasing long-lifespan products.
Recover, recycle, and upcycle waste including equipment.
Electricity comes entirely from sources with the lowest possible carbon intensity (ideally generated by wind or solar rather than from non-renewable sources). For example, Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) can help verify the source, or, ideally, prove that electricity comes directly from renewable sources.
Compensate remaining emissions, keeping in mind that the priority should be to avoid then reduce them and only compensate for them if they cannot be avoided. Carbon credits may not be sustainable, therefore the effectiveness of an offset solution must be verified, shown to be both environmentally viable and sustainable, and part of a longer-term strategy to eliminate emissions entirely from a chain, benefitting the wider ecosystem.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Hardware, Networking
Browser caching reduces the requirement for files to need to be constantly reloaded from the server, and in certain situations it can even allow for files to be viewed offline (or in the case of a reverse-proxy, send immediate recurring requests without additional calculation or computation from the server). As such, this will have emissions savings and performance benefits (for instance by greatly reducing Time-To-First-Byte).
If using a CMS, install an applicable plugin to enable on-the-fly server-side caching. Otherwise, use the provided server configuration files to include and tweak the file-type cache expiration using expires, bfcache or cache-control HTTP header.
Client-side JavaScript uses a combination of ServiceWorkers, WebWorkers, storage Application Programming Interfaces (API's), or cookies (if necessary) to reduce friction in the user-journey. For example, through the use of a PWA (Progressive Web Application) to ensure that an offline version is available and accessible at all times to reduce inequality and improve accessibility.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Assets, HTML, JavaScript, Performance, Networking
Every file will take up a certain amount of room on a server's hard drive, and this data will need to be sent across-the-wire to each visitor. Doing so will consume resources, but by using compression algorithms you can shrink each file to make its journey less ecologically impactful.
If using a CMS, install an applicable plugin to enable on-the-fly server-side compression, such as Brotli or GZIP. Otherwise, use the provided server configuration files to include and tweak the performance related features to the requirements.
Compress your various images, fonts, audio, and video; by reducing the quality and offering different resolutions / dimensions (sizes) before uploading to a server or content management system.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Assets, Performance, Networking
Navigation errors lead to mistakes, which lead to visitor's wasting time trying to resolve them, or abandoning a website altogether. Anything that can be done to interject, predict and way-find around potential problems will reduce emissions over time.
Maintain sites by ensuring links are correct, and if errors occur, provide suitable way-finding within optimized pages for each error type to ensure resources can be identified to help a visitor to complete the task they started.
Redirect websites, subdomains, and pages only when necessary. Proactively seek broken or outdated links and fix them. A redirect or search will often help reduce the number of pages a visitor needs to load.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, UI, Usability, Compatibility, Networking, Marketing
Decommission or switch off additional environments, such as testing / Quality Assurance QA) / re-production and other such environments when they are not useful.
Ensure no unused environment is available, balancing the cost of deploying an environment with the cost of keeping it online while unused.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Performance, Hardware, Software, Networking
Any tasks, especially repetitive, that can be automated should be automated (compilation, deployment, tests, etc.) to reduce time at the computer being wasted by people.
Every recurring task, such as deployment, testing, or compilation, can be run automatically, as is recommended by continuous integration / continuous delivery best practices.
To reduce wasted processing cycles, every automated task is only run when needed.
Use automated scaling infrastructure to automatically increase the capacity of the web server and implement buffering / throttling to respond to visitor demand.
Web browsing from bots has been steadily increasing in recent years. As such, it is a growing concern for security, performance, and sustainability. Use security tools that automatically block bad actors and minimize bad behavior. This results in substantially less load on the server, less logs, less data, less effect due to compromise and more. The result of compromised websites is a large increase in HTTP, email and other traffic as malicious code attempts to infiltrate other resources and exfiltrate data. Compromised websites are typically identified by anomalous patterned behavior.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Performance, Software
Only send data from the server when the visitor needs it. As much as possible, you can rely on client-side or server-side cache and client-side / local storage. Rather than refreshing data on a given frequency, it might be up to the visitor to manually ask for a refresh.
Frequency for refresh (of both the cache, locally stored data, and the page) is defined depending on visitor needs.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Usability, JavaScript, Performance, Networking
For security reasons and in accordance with an SLA (Service-Level Agreement), it is often recommended to duplicate data to make sure it remains available if a problem occurs. This should be balanced with the cost of such duplication. Not all data is critical and, rather than overcompensating with multiple saves, duplication should be designed with efficiency in mind.
Backups of system and user data are both incremental and secure.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Performance, Hardware
Depending on carbon-intensity, some processes and communications should be delayed and sometimes batched. This could also be a way to reduce the workload on a server or VM. In such cases, visitor's should be warned that the process is asynchronous and notified when it is over.
By default, non-critical processes and communications are batched and launched only when carbon-intensity is under a given threshold.
Ensure the communication protocols are relevant to the visitor needs and data transferred. Avoid using insecure protocols (HTTP, FTP), and prioritize more efficient and privacy-aware data routes for visitor's (HTTPS, SSH).
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: JavaScript, Performance, Networking
Edge computing can help optimize energy usage by reducing the amount of traffic transferred over the internet.
When building for a globally distributed audience, use a CDN to store and serve simple read-only, pre-generated resources in a fast and efficient manner. Although they definitely can increase performance, it is also another layer of infrastructure which needs to be considered for sustainability.
Check the CDN to verify that it provides a commitment to sustainability.
Choose a hosting provider with servers located close to the visitor.
Avoid using the service to host dynamic resources (such as JavaScript) as due to cache partitioning, any benefits are negated by weaker performance, and the potential introduction of security and privacy issues.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, Performance, Hardware, Networking
Select infrastructure with minimal specifications meeting business requirements of performance, availability, etc.
Select infrastructure elements with the lowest requirements tier, meeting your service-level agreements. Avoid over-provisioning multi-datacenter, multi-zone or distributed deployments if standalone instances meet the requirements. Also avoid provisioning infrastructure that will be under-utilized by provisioning for established average loads, ensuring reasonable resource utilization and autoscaling occurs as needed. Avoid provisioning for peak loads.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Performance, Hardware, E-Waste
Optimize storage of data according to what is most important, relevant and required in service to visitor's. This will help to avoid unnecessary storage of data that may not be useful or valuable, which will reduce required infrastructure, power, and data transfer.
Remove unnecessary and redundant data from your servers, whether it is single-use (dark data) or abandoned.
Create data with an expiration date. Excess data is a form of technical debt, and routinely cleaning up old data needs to be normalized.
Use a data classification / tagging policy to make it easier to find, handle and remove.
Store data only when it is difficult to recreate.
Optimize log collection, storage (off-site) and rotation; scheduling during low-activity hours and using carbon-neutral backup providers.
Enable storage compression both on the fly (Brotli or GZIP) and with long-term assets made available for download.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, Performance, Hardware, E-Waste, Privacy
Create a publicly available statement in an easy to find location on your website that outlines a clear commitment to prioritize ethics and sustainability ESG standards which align with the organization's mission, vision, and values and includes statements specific to digital products, services, policies, and programs. This should be done while actively promoting such efforts (with evidence) using social channels.
The organization has published a publicly available Code of Ethics, Product Guidelines, Sustainability, or ESG Statement that includes language specific to digital products, services, policies, and programs.
List achievements, features, compliance, and anything beyond the scope of these guidelines and publish it in a sustainability section of your product or service.
The organization can show how it effectively governs implemented digital sustainability, climate policies, and related ESG practices over time.
The organization has training decks and workshops it uses to onboard new team members on how it implements more sustainable product strategies.
Raise awareness with your visitor's by documenting your methodology, through impact storytelling, documentation, and helping individuals make more informed decisions.
The organization can show how it powers digital products and services with renewable energy.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Ideation, Research, Education, Strategy, KPIs
Having someone within an organization who represents sustainability as a core agenda makes good sense due to the accessibility, performance, financial and other benefits which can occur from following best practices.
Choose and assign an ecological referee (with specific digital expertise) for the product or service within your organization.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Ideation, Education, Marketing
Businesses should not only reference their own materials showcasing how they are working towards becoming sustainable, but cite existing sustainability best practices to help others looking to make similar changes within their own work or personal environments.
Make sure that all project stakeholders, including product teams, colleagues, and organizational decision-makers (managers and clients) are informed about and trained in your businesses use of sustainable technology.
Encourages stakeholders to actively reduce their environmental impact by providing resources on sustainable design, practices, and concepts.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, Education, Reporting, Marketing
Allowing the visitor to take action to reduce their emissions is key to helping them play a part in becoming more sustainable. By helping them identify when choices they make could have an environmental impact (and by how much) and then providing them with the tooling choices to reduce their footprint, you can empower them to make a lasting difference.
Clearly communicate the ecological implications of visitor choices and allow visitor's to configure settings based on those choices.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, Education, Reporting
Being able to identify key issues with your website or application is essential, and while not a foolproof method, using tooling can help you achieve an overall idea about the state of your product or service's environmental state (as such tools can do for accessibility).
Conduct a full life-cycle Analysis based on the functional unit defined in Guideline 1.2.
Estimate the environmental impact of your or your competitor's current service to inform decision-making (as a potential target goal).
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Ideation, Research, Strategy, KPIs
Define sustainability goals for the organization to meet and incorporate into its business model. Pair each goal with at least one clear, achievable metric or Key Performance Indicator (KPI).
The organization has defined and published a clear set of sustainability goals. It publicly communicates how it will meet these goals, including which performance metrics are important to help the organization and its various stakeholders thrive.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Ideation, Research, Governance, KPIs
Business certifications can fill the gaps left by incomplete sustainability legislation. Ensuring a business complies with third-party certifications will help verify and apply an objective level of rigor to an organization's sustainability efforts.
The organization has achieved one or more business sustainability certifications and incorporated operational policies and practices to support them.
The organization maintains its certification through evolving policies and practices over time.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Governance, KPIs
The organization has clear onboarding and training processes that include ESG policies and practices with explicit references to digital sustainability and responsibility. Ensure that onboarding utilizes a "green by default" process and avoids being an opt-in procedure.
The organization has dedicated training manuals, workshops, and materials that outline the ESG policies and practices it follows and how to implement them. While managing and maintaining these materials over time, adapting them as new policies and practices arise.
The organization incentivizes leadership, teams, and stakeholders to make progress toward the goals outlined in their training, including time for sustainability activities, recognition for completion, as so on.
The organization anticipates and maps potential negative external variables on the service, and acts to minimize their overall impact.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Education, Strategy
The organization discloses and reports its ESG impact on at least an annual basis.
The organization has created and published policies and practices for disclosing the social and environmental impacts of its products, services, policies, and programs in line with existing reporting standards such as GRI Performance, SASB, etc.
The organization produces a publicly available impact report outlining its progress against previous reports on social and environmental goals at least once per year.
The organization publicly and transparently follows existing or emerging environmental standards and legislative policy that promotes mandatory disclosures and reporting for emissions. This is done alongside other social and environmental criteria in its impact reporting, maintaining these practices over time for future reports.
The organization clearly identifies how it reduces its environmental impact, avoiding double accounting, greenwashing, excluded data or other manipulative techniques.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, Reporting, KPIs
An Impact Business Model enables an organization to incorporate specific impact initiatives into one or more business models for generating revenue, often making them "green by default" and folding impact initiatives into the organization's operating system. Moreover, being able to calculate the return of investment in terms of sustainability your product or service will bring is important to identifying whether it poses a net-positive or net-negative effect to the environment.
The organization has completed (and operationalized) a Theory of Change process with requisite documentation to identify the impact it hopes to create, how it will generate revenue, shared, or added value from these activities, how it will measure results based on desired outcomes; or in the case of launched projects, is generating revenue, actively tracking and measuring progress against any desired outcomes.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, Ideation, Research, Strategy
The organization has clearly defined governance policies around how it manages and maintains digital products and services over time.
The organization has documented policies outlining how it approaches product management and maintenance.
The organization has maintenance / security plans in place for all the digital products and services it manages.
The organization appropriately resources products over time via staffing and budgeting to support refactoring code, addressing technical debt, new product features, ongoing testing, and product or service maintenance plans to continue supporting its customers, visitor's, and other stakeholders.
The organization incorporates carbon and resource measurement into maintenance programs and can show measurable improvement over time.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Compatibility, Strategy
The organization has policies and practices in place to embrace experimentation, foster a growth mindset, support organizational agility, and provide continuous improvement. Product creators should iterate, regularly, though never at the cost of getting things done (such as working on larger, long-term features).
The organization has created policies and practices to enable continuous improvement and has resourced the organization appropriately to support these efforts over time.
Agile sprints and update frequency must go through a review process to ensure project teams have enough time to conduct user-research, identify technical debt, and produce quality output.
Use (and show a track record of) continuous improvement (iteration) to analyze your website or application while also addressing the by-products and potential consequences of ongoing experimentation, such as technical debt, product performance, emissions, and related issues. Limiting analytics to only necessary features to aid with decision-making, encouraging visitor feedback, and comparing performance against business goals and visitor needs.
Justify and prioritize the retention of existing features, the creation of new functionality, and the decommission or elimination of unused functionality and unvisited pages through the product's life-cycle.
Provide corrective security and policy updates during the product or services lifecycle, while distinguishing these updates from more extensive evolutionary updates.
Develop sustainable product and data strategies along with appropriate training techniques that help your team (managers, colleagues, etc) build capacity and learn new skills to manage and maintain products and services over time.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: UI, Compatibility, Performance, Security, Strategy, KPIs
Products or services update regularly, ensure that additions, changes, deprecations, removals, fixes, or security patches are documented in an easy-to-read document with details that showcase how such changes affect the visitor (or how they can take advantage of new features).
The user-experience considers possible changes to the product or service such as adding, updating, or removing features.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Content, Education, Usability, Compatibility
Ensure that the product or service you are creating offers value to visitor's and doesn't duplicate existing functionality (without bringing something new to the table) as this redundancy wastes digital and physical resources.
Review and identify whether your product or service aligns with one of the U.N. (SDG's).
Evaluate the desirability, feasibility, and viability of the digital product or service they wish to create to ascertain whether it is necessary.
Determine that no existing digital product or service offers the same value. They have conducted analysis to understand whether a new product or service is necessary.
Consider any obstacles to using a product or service, such as accessibility, equality, technical, or territorial.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Ideation, Software, E-Waste, Reporting
The functional unit of a product is a quantified description of the performance requirements that the product fulfills. Ensure you identify the requirements of your product before development.
Consider and conduct a life-cycle Assessment (LCA) to define the requirements of your product's function throughout its lifecycle.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Ideation, Research, Reporting
The organization collaborates with suppliers, authors, clients, and other partners on initiatives that are both mutually beneficial and create positive social and environmental outcomes.
The organization has created specific policies to vet potential partners in its supply chain based on ESG principles.
The organization has partnered with suppliers to create, track, and measure collective impact on issues that impact their stakeholders.
The organization promotes its partnerships in a publicly available place, along with information on how the partnership creates collective impact.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Content, Ideation, Hardware, Governance
The organization has public policies and practices supporting racial justice, inclusion, equity, and diversity in hiring and operations.
The organization has documented its commitment to JEDI practices with clear policies on how it prioritizes marginalized or otherwise underserved communities, including Black, Indigenous, People of Color, LGBTQIA+, Women, Disabled, Veterans, Seniors, and so on.
The organization has an accessibility policy for digital products and services and can show this via a verified accessible website, application, product, or service.
The organization has JEDI-related training materials and schedules ongoing workshops related to how this topic manifests itself in digital products and services (algorithmic bias, digital divide, gig economy work, mis / disinformation, etc).
The organization can show measurable JEDI improvement over time in its hiring, leadership, and operations.
The organization advocates for responsible legislation relating to JEDI practices, especially as related to digital products and services.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Accessibility, Ideation, Strategy
The organization has devised and implemented a responsible data strategy that prioritizes data privacy and promotes more ethical uses of data, including disposal and data sustainability practices.
The organization has a public-facing privacy policy in place and supports existing privacy laws such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and so on. This policy must be both accessible for all visitors, including those with accessibility and reading comprehension needs, and abide by plain english best practices to avoid jargon, technical language and legalese.
The organization can show measurable progress over time on how it respects data privacy and ownership, including a visitor's "right-to-be-forgotten" and provides the ability to export data.
The organization supports new and emerging legislation related to data privacy, data sustainability, and responsible data practices.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Content, Privacy, Governance
Expired or unused data has a cost, it takes up space, and it requires maintenance. As such, the ability for customers to manage their own data and for service providers to manage older website material which no longer applies but might still have use will be a carbon benefit.
Outdated or otherwise expired product content and data are archived and deleted via automated expiration dates and schedule product audits. Create an archiving schedule with a lighter version of the old searchable content available.
Enable users to control, manage and delete their data, subscriptions, and accounts.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Security, Privacy, Strategy
The organization has devised and implemented responsible policies related to artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and related emerging technologies.
The organization has public-facing policies in place for emerging technologies.
The organization can show how it up-skills workers as new technologies and practices potentially disrupt its business model.
The organization supports responsible legislation related to automation and emerging technologies.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Content, Governance
The organization implements responsible finance strategies, including divesting from fossil fuels and appropriately resourcing digital products and services to account for long-term care and maintenance.
The organization has divested from fossil fuels and moved its banking, sponsorship, and other affiliations to more responsible partners.
The organization engages in flexible financing and responsible budgeting for its digital products and services to accommodate long-term care and maintenance.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Ideation, Governance
For-profit organizations have clear philanthropy policies and practices in place to help non-profit organizations build digital capacity and acumen while also engaging their own teams in meaningful work that promotes shared learning and stretch goals.
The organization has a clear corporate giving policy and creates philanthropic partnerships with strategically aligned organizations.
The organization engages in free or volunteer projects, which help its team learn new tools and tactics, while also helping charities and non-profit organizations build capacity.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Content, Governance
Everything ends at some point, planning for if and when a product or service is finalized makes good ethical sense to ensure customers can be transitioned toward a replacement rather than losing access to their data.
Establish clear, documented end-of-life guidelines that include data disposal, archiving, file deletion, and so on.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Research, Compatibility, Software, E-Waste, Strategy
The organization addresses e-waste, right-to-repair, recycling, and related practices in its operations.
The organization has specific policies in place to recycle e-waste and repair owned technology products whenever possible.
The organization has formed relationships with local partners for e-waste recycling and repair.
The organization buys refurbished equipment whenever possible.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, Content, Ideation, Hardware, E-Waste, Governance
Setting targets and limits regarding your product or service are important for keeping a sustainable mindset. Using budgets, you can declare the remits of which you will work within to ensure your emissions do not fall outside (and monitor your progress through development).
The product team has defined, baselined, and documented a clear sustainability and environmental budget criteria that covers page, user-journey, and digital service levels and metrics (such as a CO2.js score) that are approved by relevant product stakeholders.
Use tools such as a performance budget to determine the maximum size (goals) your app or website can weigh to reduce the data transfer and HTTP request impact (using metrics like Google Lighthouse).
The product team can measurably show how much the budgeting process improved performance and reduced emissions.
The product team invests in resources to build capacity and maintain the budgets over time.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Accessibility, Ideation, Research, Usability, Performance, KPIs
The organization has clear policies about using open source tools, including how it gives back to the community and responsibly manages code repositories to reduce waste.
The organization has a clear open source policy in place that outlines how it uses open source tools and the practices it supports surrounding open source development.
The organization has a track record of collaboration and community-building around open source principles.
The organization regularly contributes to open source community-based projects.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.
Tags: Social Equity, UI, Ideation, Assets, Software
This section is non-normative.
Web accessibility (also referred to as Inclusive Design) means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities (and those without) can use them, free of barriers.
Types of accessibility issue can include auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual. They can also be permanent, temporary, or situational (depending on the accessibility issue).
For information purposes and not required for compliance.
Content identified as "informative" or "non-normative" is never required for compliance.
Required for compliance.
An approach to designing digital products and services that puts people and the planet first.
Aiming for a clean (hosted using renewables), efficient (using the fewest resources possible), open (accessible and user-controlled data), honest (avoiding misleading or exploiting visitor's), regenerative (support people and the planet) and resilient (function under any circumstances) service or product.
Additional information about participation in the Sustainable Web Design Community Group (SWG-CG) can be found within the wiki of the community group.
Alexander Dawson, Anne Faubry, Ben Clifford, Brett Tackaberry, Chris Adams, Chris Sater, Claire Thornewill, Ian Jacobs, Ines Akrap, Ismael Velasco, Jennifer Strickland, Julien Wilhelm, Laurent Devernay, Łukasz Mastalerz, Michelle Barker, Mike Gifford, Nahuai Badiola, Neil Clark, Nicola Bonotto, Sandy Dähnert, Shane Herath, Thorsten Jonas, Tim Frick, Tzviya Siegman
Anthony Vallée-Dubois, Antoine Abélard, Christophe Clouzeau, Crystal Preston-Watson, Dennis Lemm, Emily Trotter, Fershad Irani, Gaël Duez, Gerry McGovern, James Cannings, James Gallagher, Jon Gibbins, Juan Sotés, Kate Mroczkowski, Kimi Wei, Luis Tiago, Marie Koesnodihardjo, Nick Doty, Nicolas Oren, Radu Micu, Rick Viscomi, Seb Solere, Thierry Leboucq, Tom Greenwood, Torsten Beyer, Yelle Lieder, Zoe Lopez-Latorre.
Referenced in:
Referenced in:
Referenced in: