Sustainable Web
This is a summary of sustainable web as part of our principles. For a more complete reading please read our post Introduction to the Sustainable Web
Definition - What is the sustainable web?
Sustainable web is what we do to reduce the impact on the planet’s resources when we create, maintain and use the web.
“Sustainable Web is like buying LED bulbs, it is much more efficient than traditional ones, it can be easily bought (sustainable web agencies), it has a reasonable price and pollutes less”
Although there are different definitions of the concept and discussion regarding what sustainable means in social, economic and environmental terms, there is consensus on one thing: the web generates pollution, and it is not negligible.
Many people assume that the web is “clean” because it doesn’t create visible pollution. However, the Internet is responsible for 4% of total carbon emissions, equivalent to the entire aviation industry. Source: mdn
The Internet is mostly powered by electricity which in turn has sources based on burning fossils which produce CO2 that is released into the atmosphere, generating pollution. From maintaining datacenters, producing the necessary hardware (computers, cell phones, servers) or consuming information that is transmitted over the network (cable, cellular), the internet consumes large amounts of electricity.
Why sustainable web?
We are experiencing climate change, where human activities, mainly greenhouse gas emissions, have accelerated global warming, with 2024 officially being the hottest year since global temperature began to be measured in 1850. Source: climate.gov.
The range of “normal” of a few years ago is no longer normal. Global warming shows an increase in the number and intensity of major floods, major droughts, major storms (major disasters, Texas’s flooding 2025 or Porto Alegre’s flooding 2024 or DANA sounds familiar?).
Governments have set global emissions targets with the aim of mitigating the impact in the medium and long term. While most scientists believe that it is not a “Human Extinction Event”, it is believed that after a certain limit it’s catastrophic, especially (and unfortunately) in less developed countries with an increase in disasters Source: usgs.gov
Strong economic impacts, price increases, changes in production levels of certain foods/goods due to droughts or floods, rising costs in air conditioning (hot/cold), and even the disappearance of small farmers who are news, unfortunately sad, in documentaries.
At the same time, we are experiencing strong social changes as a result of the devastation that remains after climatic episodes such as DANA in Spain, heavy floods in India, Brazil and lately in the USA, among others.
The question is then, does it make sense to pollute more than necessary?
And what does it matter to me as a manager?
Many companies, especially in industries that are necessary but pollute more, have either by law or by marketing strategy, a sustainability management department. Industrial sustainability is VERY hard. It requires improving processes, being more efficient and innovating. There are unaligned objectives between those who produce and those who sell, incentives for “greenwashing” – a form of misleading marketing that makes the public believe that an organization’s products and services are sustainable – lack of experienced human capital in new technologies and high investment costs.
However, a sustainable website is not. Sustainable Web is reasonable in price, in difficulty, easy to outsource to competent companies (such as Injeniero) and produces tangible business benefits.
Sustainable Web is an easy win for a sustainability manager. One less checklist in a difficult and increasingly important business department.
And what does it matter to me as an entrepreneur?
Any small or medium-sized company that is not heavily regulated could say, “I really don’t care”.
A company by definition is an entity whose reason for existence is to profit, so unless it is a legal obligation to have a sustainable website, why would you?
Sustainable Web generates desirable business attributes: better SEO, higher speed, better accessibility, better usability, and better environmental reputation.
Gains
- Sustainable website is a fast website wich means higher chance of conversion and lower chance of abandonment
- Due to speed and optimizations a sustainable website has better SEO, which increases volume and improves the likelihood of conversion
- Sustainable website improves accessibility which increases user diversity and use cases along with improving SEO, increasing reach and likelihood of conversion
- An efficient page generates less maintenance costs
- Depending on the industry, NOT being sustainable is LOSING sales
- Sustainable website have better usability that translates into higher conversion
- Better user experience means better branding
- Finally, sustainable web is good marketing. Given the equality of the attributes of a brand, very few people will prefer a company that pollutes more.
Injeniero creates superb sustainable websites, ecommerce and web systems. It’s our core.