This website is designed with sustainability in mind

When designing and developing my website, I focused on ecological, social and economic sustainability.

Lightweight design for reduced climate impact

Every website, app and software produces greenhouse gas emissions. But we can reduce this.

Why is this important?

My website receives the Website Carbon Rating: A+

A visit to my homepage generates only 0.06 g of CO₂ equivalent and is therefore cleaner than 94% of all websites.

With 1,000 pages viewed per month, this would be 0.78kg of CO₂ equivalent per year — roughly the same as heating 105 cups of tea.¹

Sustainable websites are good for business

Sustainable web design isn’t just good for the environment — it’s also good for businesses.

Here’s how:

• Faster Loading Times: Smaller, well-structured websites load more quickly. This keeps visitors engaged and allows more people to access the site, even those with slower internet connections.
• Improved Search Engine Rankings: Smaller, user-friendly and accessible websites tend to rank higher in search engine results, so that more potential customers can find the website.
• Better User Experience: Well-designed websites are easier to navigate. Satisfied visitors are more likely to trust the brand and buy a product or service.
• Building Trust and Loyalty: Websites that respect user privacy and avoid manipulative marketing tactics build trust. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and repeat business.

By combining these factors, sustainable websites can attract more visitors and ultimately boost sales.

My homepage loads in under 3 seconds on mobile devices (0.9 seconds on desktop) and thus receives a performance rating of 95 (desktop: 99). In the other three categories, accessibility, best practices and SEO, the ratings are 100.²

Do you want a sustainable website that’s good for your business?

Strategies for sustainable web design

This website was designed and built based on the principles of the Sustainable Web Manifesto using the following strategies:

• Sustainable Hosting: Our sustainable hosting provider raidboxes hosts this website on servers in Germany which are powered by 100% renewable energy from water. As a bonus, this hosting company takes care of important technical sustainability aspects like security and caching.
• Open-Source Technology: This website is built on WordPress, an open-source platform, which has powered more than 40% of the internet for over 20 years.
• Sustainable Theme: This website uses the Kadence theme, which is known for its commitment to light-weight design and accessibility ans is regularly updated by a professional development theme. This means that the website can be easily maintained without needing a web developer.
• Lightweight Design: This website comes without unnecessary or heavy-weight plugins or features. Its design prioritizes light-weight components over video, fancy animations or huge images.
• Accessibility: To allow anyone regardless of circumstances or ability to use it, I designed this website with accessibility principles and WCAG 2.2 standards in mind. I tested it before launch and regularly after making changes.
• User Experience: I prioritize usability by designing websites for the specific needs and circumstances of my audience. I reject deceptive design practices and instead focus on ethical marketing and calm design.
• Minimal Data Collection: To protect user privacy and the environment, this website collects only the necessary data and avoids cookies.

There are a number of design changes that can make websites more sustainable and performant. I’m happy to talk about a strategy to achieve stellar results for your website.

Why is sustainable web design important?

Just like any digital product, a website has an environmental impact. Every click and tap starts a dialogue with data centers, which need electricity 24/7 and large amounts of water for cooling. More energy is needed to power telecommunication networks and our devices. Since most of this energy is still created from fossil fuels, the internet also has a huge CO₂ footprint.

In 2024, the average web page size has grown to 2.665 MB.³ Each visit to a page produces about 0.8 grams of CO₂.⁴ While that might not sound like much, it adds up quickly.

For example, with 10,000 page views per month, that single page would create 96 kg of CO₂ over a year. It would take 48 trees a whole year to absorb that amount of carbon.

That’s just one website — and there a millions of websites out there.

1. Source: websitecarbon.com
   Note: The results refer solely to the homepage. I chose the homepage for this analysis because this is where most visitors are likely to land. The results for other subpages may differ. However, you will find a display of CO₂ emissions in the footer of each page. ↩︎
2. Source: Google Lighthouse Report (Mobile).
   Note: The results refer solely to the homepage when accessed for the first time from a mobile device. ↩︎
3. Source: HTTP Archive Page Weight Report October 2024 ↩︎
4. Source: Website Carbon FAQ ↩︎
5. All figures shown are million tons of CO₂ equivalent and refer to the year 2023.
   Sources: impaakt.com and The European Commission. ↩︎