What is Web Sustainability?
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Written by Matteo Lion / Last edited: 19 March 2025
The Hidden Impact of Digital Technology
Usually people perceive digital technology as clean because its pollution isn’t immediately visible, like it can be seen on vehicles or industries. However, every time someone scrolls through social media feeds, sends an email, visits a website, uses an app or uses a chat, they emit a few grams of carbon dioxide (CO₂), contributing to their carbon footprint and polluting the planet.
These emissions are produced from energy often generated by fossil fuels. Digital pollution is created by data centres and servers transmitting data to and from devices, the energy consumed by wi-fi, laptops and mobiles and the energy used in hardware production.
The Impact of Digital Technology on the Planet
In 2019, The Shift Project estimated that, in a worst-case scenario, digital energy consumption in 2025 would be 8% of the world’s total energy use. However, with the addition of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrencies, it has already reached around 15% of global energy consumption, creating a significant carbon footprint.
What Is Web Sustainability? Becoming Conscious
Using the web sustainably is a responsibility shared by users, designers, and developers.
Everyday users can take active actions like managing device usage and the weight of exchanged content. Meanwhile, web developers and designers can implement passive measures to create a low-carbon web, such as optimising website’s user experience and building lighter websites.
Fortunately more and more people are becoming aware of web’s carbon footprint and are working towards a greener web. Web developers and designers are employing strategies to reduce web carbon emissions, in order to, for example, create lighter, faster, and more and planet-friendly websites.
Web Sustainability Guidelines
In 2023, the Web Sustainability Guidelines were introduced: a series of 94 recommendations inspired by the 1999 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These evolving guidelines help designers and developers reduce CO₂ emissions, raise public awareness about web sustainability, promote industry change, and pave the way for meaningful legislation to act on climate change.
Conclusion
Individual actions are crucial in tackling climate change, from choosing sustainable energy sources, choosing eat more sustainable products, to making eco-friendly business decisions and reducing social media usage or build more sustainable websites.
However, collective action is equally important to establish guidelines and push governments to enact laws that reduce digital technology emissions.
