We hope you enjoy learning about this principle!
Find out more in our main article: This is how sustainably websites can grow.
“The web is an ocean full of crap.”
Gerry McGovern
Even web design produces waste, both online and in the workplace. Avoiding waste requires foresight and ethical standards. So this means: refuse, reduce, reuse, repair and recycle.
- Take a minimalist approach: Before you buy something or add a new element to a website, consider whether it will actually add value and ask yourself if you REALLY need it.
? How to ensure your website saves data and energy:
- Use clean code – this will make your work efficient and your website easy to maintain and update.
- Use a mobile first design strategy to boost the performance and energy efficiency of your website.
- Consider whether image and video files add value to your website.. Avoid unnecessary large files; this minimises loading time and is good for your SEO and your users.
- Stay clean – delete unused content, images and pages.
- Find more tips in the article 17 ways to make your website more energy efficient.
- Recycle content: Post great articles on social media more than once (with an interval, of course). Or consider reusing last year’s Christmas artwork.
- When creating new content, think about how it could be reused in the future. For example, we created free graphics and banners for a climate protection campaign by the German initiative Entrepreneurs for Future. We still offer them as free downloads and hope they will also be used for other climate protection campaigns.
- Use smart communication: Replace business trips, which are harmful to the environment, with online meetings. Using email offers a sustainable alternative to postal mail, but this only has an impact if you follow the principle of minimising data. According to sustainability website Der Nachhaltige Warenkorb, if we sent emails with the same frequency as we used to send letters prior to the introduction of electronic mail, we would certainly reduce CO2 emissions. So we need to use the Internet wisely too!
? Warning!
Just watching this aptly named video produces 8.7 grams of CO2 This video is bad for climate change: Thank you for watching!
Now you know one of the 12 principles.
Want to find out more? Go to the next principle or return to the main article!
