A sustainable website is a site that uses as little energy as possible: it runs on green hosting, loads light pages and doesn't send unnecessary data to your visitors. The nice thing is that almost every step that makes a website more sustainable also makes it faster and more pleasant to use.
Every time someone opens your website, files are sent through servers, networks and phones. That uses electricity. Per visit it's not much, but with thousands of visits a month and years of use, it adds up. In this article you'll learn what you can do yourself and what to look out for with a new website.
What makes a website sustainable?
There are three places where your website uses energy. You can make gains in each of them:
- The server: the computer in a data centre where your website lives. It runs day and night.
- The network: all the cables and connections your files travel through. The more data, the more energy.
- Your visitor's device: a heavy page asks more of the phone or laptop, and so uses more battery too.
A sustainable website tackles all three: clean electricity for the server, less data over the network and less processing on the device.
Choosing green hosting: what to look for
Green hosting means the data centre runs on sustainably generated electricity, such as wind or solar power. Many hosting providers say they're green. So look further than a green leaf on their website.
- Ask where the electricity comes from and whether that's proven, for example with guarantees of origin.
- Check whether the data centre is in the Netherlands or Europe. That's also good for GDPR (AVG in Dutch) and for speed for visitors in the Netherlands.
- Ask how the data centre handles cooling and waste heat.
- Check your current hosting with an online green hosting checker, such as the one from the Green Web Foundation.
Green hosting doesn't have to be more expensive. It's wise to look at speed, backups and support as well, though. Read more in choosing website hosting.
Lighter pages: the biggest gain for a sustainable website
Most of a website's data isn't in the text, but in images, videos, fonts and scripts. So that's where the biggest gains are. A light page is faster, ranks better in Google and uses less energy.
- Images: resize photos to the size they're shown at and use modern formats such as WebP or AVIF.
- Lazy loading: only load images when the visitor scrolls to them.
- Video: avoid a video that plays automatically in the background. Let visitors press play themselves.
- Fonts: use one or two typefaces, and only load the weights you actually use.
- Scripts: every chat widget, tracker or slider adds code. Remove whatever doesn't pay off.
- Caching: let returning visitors load files from their own browser instead of downloading them again.
Want to know how heavy your pages are now? A speed test shows how much data is loaded and which files are largest. You can read how to test that and what to do about it in making your website faster.
How do you measure your website's carbon footprint?
There are online calculators that estimate the emissions per page visit. They calculate with the number of kilobytes a page loads and whether your hosting is green. See the result as a rough indication, not an exact figure. Every tool calculates slightly differently.
It's more useful to look at the page weight itself: how much data does your homepage load, and which files are the biggest? You can bring that number down, and then you see the effect straight away. Measure your most important pages again once a year, or after a major change.
Sustainable web design: less is often more
Sustainability starts with the design. A website with a clear structure and few unnecessary elements is lighter, but also easier to use. A visitor who quickly finds what they're looking for clicks through fewer pages and is done sooner.
- Remove pages that nobody visits and that add nothing.
- Choose one strong photo instead of a carousel with eight images.
- Make sure navigation is clear and search works well, so people don't have to hunt around.
- Only use animations where they explain something.
A sustainable website lasts a long time
A website you have completely rebuilt after two years takes a lot of work and energy. A site that's set up well can be updated and extended for years. That's more sustainable, and cheaper too.
So pay attention to a few things with a new website. Is the code clean and standard, so another developer can carry on with it? Can you change text and photos yourself through a CMS? And is the site maintained with updates, so it stays secure? Also look at data you store for no reason, such as old backups, form submissions from years ago or unused images. Clearing it out saves storage and is good for your privacy.
Common mistakes with a sustainable website
- Only looking at green hosting and leaving a heavy site as it is.
- Uploading large photos straight from the camera.
- A background video on the homepage that loads on every phone.
- Installing plug-ins for every small feature.
- Putting sustainability claims on your site that you can't back up.
That last one matters. Only write on your website what you've actually done, such as: we run on green electricity and have made our pages lighter. Vague claims such as climate neutral without evidence can be misleading.
How we build a light website
At Violexa we build websites with modern techniques that are light and fast by nature. We optimise images, only load the code a page needs and take a critical look at every extra script. That also makes it easier to pass Google's Core Web Vitals. A custom website through websites and apps starts from €1,799 excl. VAT (€2,177 incl. VAT), including design, build, a layout that works on every screen, basic SEO and CMS integration with training.
Want to know how light your current website is and what could be improved? Book a free quickscan. It's a 30-minute conversation, online or on site. Afterwards you get brief written advice with a price indication, with no obligation.
Frequently asked questions
What is green hosting?
Green hosting is hosting in a data centre that runs on sustainably generated electricity, such as wind or solar power. Ask your hosting provider how they prove it, because not every green claim is equally well backed up.
How do I make my website more sustainable?
Start with the biggest files: shrink images and remove background videos and unnecessary scripts. Then switch to green hosting if you haven't already. These steps make your site faster too.
Is a sustainable website also better for SEO?
Indirectly, yes. A light website loads faster, and speed counts in how Google assesses pages. Visitors are also less likely to leave a fast site.
