How to make your website eco-friendly
You may have heard about sustainability in the world of business lately.
Sustainability is lowering or avoiding the extra use of natural resources to maintain a balance. Sustainability has become one of the biggest keys to business success lately. Some companies have started to put in place eco-friendly business practices to help avoid the extra use of our planet’s natural resources.
Many modern businesses are increasingly aware of the need to pursue sustainable initiatives that reduce plastic use, power usage, and more. Most companies have made a conscious effort to maximize sustainability. Even online businesses today have made an effort to keep their websites green.
Now, you may be wondering how a website can be more ecologically sustainable despite the absence of physical materials. While some are aware, the majority of the people don’t know that the world wide web uses a large amount of energy.
Even a basic search on Google is contributing to climate change in some form. One study demonstrated how a Google search could be warmer than a cup of tea. And not all energy is renewable.
That’s why online businesses have made the initiative to be more eco-friendly. Below are five easy steps you can take to make your website more eco-friendly in 2020.
1. Eco-Friendly Web Hosting
The first step is the hardest, but also one of the most important. Green web hosting is the giant leap that you can apply to make your website greener.
Web hosting servers work non-stop and spend a large amount of energy to facilitate web traffic. Because of this, many web hosts want to establish themselves as green web hosting providers to show their support of eco-friendly initiatives.
Green web hosting consists of the following factors:
- Using servers powered by renewable energy.
- Optimizing hosting servers for energy efficiency.
- Companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint should look for service providers that are eco-friendly.
Finding these eco-friendly web hosting providers is fairly easy. However, you’ll want to verify that they are truly eco-friendly, and not just looking to profit off of the term.
2. Offer Incentives to Subscribers
Many consumers have started to join the green revolution. Your website can promote an eco-incentive to your subscribers to promote sustainable initiatives.
Green campaigns are a great way to show your customers that you care. Here are a few ideas your business could try:
- You could offer to plant a tree for every subscriber who purchases on your online store.
- Donate a portion of your proceeds to a recognized, eco-friendly charity.
- Develop a green program for recycling or returning your products when they are past their lifecycle.
Whatever you decide, incentives are a powerful tool that can compel customers to act.
3. Promote a Greener Lifestyle
This generation’s most trusted source of information is the Internet. Today, websites are viewed far more than traditional forms of media like newspapers and magazines.
You can use your website to promote a specific eco-friendly practice or initiative that your company is pursuing. Of course, this will depend on what you are trying to accomplish.
One method is to start educating readers on simple measures to take to decrease any adverse impact on the environment. Something as simple as shutting lights off, using energy-efficient light bulbs and appliances, or putting their computer to sleep can make a difference.
A lot of social media influencers have also used their influence to encourage their followers to support eco-friendly initiatives.
4. Simplify Your Website
A server request can spend a lot of energy on both ends. The bigger the data, the more energy it consumes to process it. Making your website designs simple can enhance the server’s efficiency by decreasing its work rate.
Some steps include posting images with lower resolutions, using fewer widgets, and using a simpler format. These steps will reduce server requests and require less energy. Plus, users will be able to enjoy a faster website, which is a win-win for your business.
5. Use Printer-Friendly Versions of Content
This step may seem outdated, but many users still like to print off material for further reading. We suggest creating an option for people to view a printer-friendly version of your website.
Unless your site is formatted for business office use, your page would be viewed on either a smartphone or linked to a social media site. Printer-friendly versions can also help save you ink and paper because the content becomes more compressed. The less paper you use for printing, the less of an ecological impact printing will have.
Printer-friendly versions also use lesser colors, which saves even more energy in the process. The darker your colors are, the more energy it will consume.
Using a white background can also help a lot. While each page with a brighter color can only save a small amount of energy, all of these minor changes add up over time.
Ready to Build Your Next Eco-Friendly Website?
Building an eco-friendly website benefits both your business and the planet. It’s also a useful marketing tool that you can use to appeal to environmentally-conscious customers.
An eco-friendly website uses less energy, speed up your page load times, and decrease the use of non-renewable resources in the process.
When it comes to the environment, every little change makes a big difference at scale. Find out how Globalgraphics can help you build an eco-friendly website. Contact our team today by calling 416-256-7800.
