Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) 1.0 at a Glance

In relation to research and ideation, make sure you:

• Map all areas your digital product could impact people and the planet.
• Assess all stakeholder issues as well as visitor and non-visitor needs; then define appropriate test policies.
• Consider the use of low carbon tools during ideation.

In relation to journey design, make sure you:

• Create a frictionless, lightweight experience, using recognized design patterns which ensure navigation and way-finding is well-structured, the visitor's attention is respected and visitors aren't manipulated.
• Implement forms which are usable, accessible, and minimal and assist visitors with errors.
• Only implement useful notifications that improve the visitor's experience.

In relation to content and assets, make sure you:

• Avoid unnecessary assets, but when they are needed, take a sustainable approach to images, media, animations, typefaces, and documents.
• Provide alternatives to visual and audio content, as well as facilitate speech-based browsing of your content.
• Write with purpose, in an accessible, easy to understand format.

In relation to quality assurance, make sure you:

• Have open working and documentation processes such as design systems.
• Conduct regular audits and testing, including value, usability, and compatibility testing into releases, as well as using inputs from visitor journey tracking to identify issues / opportunities.

In relation to the development approach, make sure you:

• Identify indicators and metrics that will encourage sustainable development approaches, and use sustainability as a success criterion of your technical requirements.

In relation to code minimization, make sure you:

• Focus on removing bottlenecks and reducing compute load on a visitor's device by removing rendering blockages, using code splitting, managing dependencies, taking advantage of native features, rigorously assessing third-party code / services and minifying everything.
• Hunt out valueless code by tree shaking your code, avoiding duplication, fewer and simpler queries, and (sparingly) using the latest JavaScript and API's.

In relation to code coherence, make sure you:

• Enable other tools to interpret your code by using HTML and metadata correctly, adhering to accessibility standards, enabling code based way-finding, avoiding deprecated or proprietary code, providing expected files and using the latest standards in relation to website assets.
• Facilitate your visitor's low carbon choices by using a mobile first layout and CSS preference queries.

In relation to code security, make sure you:

• Use the latest stable version of your chosen code language and regularly ensure your scripts are secure.

Make sure you:

• Commission environments by selecting a sustainable hosting provider, ensuring support of asynchronous processing, using the lowest appropriate infrastructure tier, and minimizing the use of additional environments.
• Minimize environments and reduce data transfer by compressing files, managing duplicate data, storing data according to visitor needs, optimizing caching, refreshing data only when the visitor needs it, and using edge computing.
• Reduce human disruption by automating where appropriate and dealing with errors and redirects.

In relation to organizational level reporting and disclosure, make sure you:

• Assign responsibility for sustainability as a core part of people's roles.
• Define clear sustainability goals and metrics, which are verified and upon which you report regularly so that others can follow in your footsteps.

In relation to organizational level strategy and policies, make sure you:

• Have business models based on positive impact, which actively listen to all stakeholders, and ensure economic benefits are shared with employees, suppliers and wider society.
• Define and implement policies for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, ethical and responsible finance / investments, philanthropy, working with suppliers who align with your values, reduction of e-waste, data privacy, appropriate data management, and considered use of emerging technologies.
• Fully induct your employees on all of the above.

In relation to product or website level strategy policies, make sure you:

• Establish if the product or website is needed; if it is, then define its requirements, design an ethical and sustainable product strategy to guide it, estimate its emissions, put budgets around those emissions, and communicate to visitors the impact their decisions will have.
• Once live, follow a product management and maintenance strategy to keep efficient, continuously improve it, openly and honestly communicate the changes you've made, and plan for its end of life.
• Use open source software.