Smart Energy GB - Digital Sustainability
Digital Sustainability
Smart Energy GB is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the benefits of smart meters to households and small businesses across Great Britain. Their mission is to help everyone understand the importance of smart meters and how they can contribute to energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.
Smart Energy GB recognise that UK businesses also need to play their part in the reduction of emissions with when it comes to digital sustainability. Digital sustainability involves using technology responsibly to create positive impacts across environmental, social, and economic dimensions. This is crucial because emissions caused by the digital industry are equivalent to those of the airline industry. With internet users and traffic growing exponentially, the need for sustainable digital practices has never been more critical. Recent reports highlight that data centres currently account for 2% of global carbon emissions, a number expected to rise to 14% by 2040.
The Challenge
Smart Energy GB aimed to enhance the sustainability of their digital presence by reducing the carbon footprint of their website. The challenge was to analyse specific pages and implement recommendations to improve energy efficiency without compromising user experience.
The Review
We undertook a comprehensive analysis of six key pages on the Smart Energy GB website using various tools to measure carbon ratings. The pages included:
The Tools
The Website Carbon Calculator provided a rating (A-F) for each page based on its carbon emissions, helping us identify areas for improvement.
Ecograder was used to determine the emissions per page, offering a detailed view of the environmental impact of each webpage. Additionally,
Google Lighthouse offered a performance rating, allowing us to assess and enhance the overall efficiency and speed of the website.
Together, these tools provided a comprehensive analysis that guided our optimization efforts
The Approach
After a comprehensive analysis, we made improvements to the following areas:
Page Weight and Image Size: We optimised images by compressing them without losing quality and ensured that only necessary images were loaded. This reduced the amount of data transferred over the wire, thereby lowering energy consumption.
Unused Code: We conducted a thorough code audit to identify and eliminate redundant code.
Performance Review: We used Google Lighthouse to identify elements that impeded page rendering.
Passive Listeners: We improved the scroll performance of the pages by optimising passive event listeners.
Cache Policy: We updated the cache policy to store frequently accessed data locally. This sped up repeat visits by reducing the need to reload data from the server, thus saving energy.
Further Page Weight Optimisation: We minimized the overall page weight by reducing the size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This made the pages lighter and quicker to load, further decreasing energy usage.
Umbraco Media Removal Tool: We implemented an easy-to-use Umbraco Media Removal tool that allows Smart Energy GB to easily audit and delete any unused media in their Umbraco back office.
The Results
The implementation of these recommendations led to significant improvements across all metrics:
- Eco rating: Improved by 32%.
- Carbon dioxide emissions: Reduced by 57%.
- Performance rating: Enhanced by 43%.
A standout result was observed with Ecograder, where the homepage's emissions per page load decreased from 5.38 grams of carbon dioxide to 0.69 grams, representing an 87% reduction.
Impact for everyone
For organisations committed to environmental sustainability, partnering with ClerksWell to create an energy-efficient website is a crucial step. An optimised website not only aligns with your mission but also sets a positive example for others. By reducing the overall carbon footprint, you contribute to global efforts to combat climate change. Additionally, higher-performing websites require less compute power to load resources, making them more environmentally efficient and cost-effective in the long run.
This project highlights the tangible benefits of digital sustainability and emphasises the importance of responsible technology use in achieving broader environmental goals.
Take action today! Speak to ClerksWell to learn how you can optimise your website for sustainability and make a positive impact on the environment.
