It’s no surprise that we all need to do our bit to be more sustainable in our day-to-day lives to help battle climate change. Whether that’s in our personal lives with what we eat, to our work lives and the technologies that we use. It’s a key global issue that needs to be tackled by private citizens and organisations so that we all can look towards a brighter future together.
Many businesses have brought in a Corporate Social Responsibility pledge where they state how they implement positive change in their company. Here at Brace, we hold our hands on our hearts when we say we’re passionate about helping our clients do their bit for the planet, as well as in our very own office with our climate change champions.
You’d be staggered at how much using the internet affects global warming. As technology has improved and we can access the web from anywhere in the world thanks to our smartphones, using our devices and even just scrolling through TikTok can have an environmental impact. Did you know that being on your phone for just one hour a day can produce 1.25 tonnes of CO2 emissions over the course of a year?
Shocking right? So much so that Google themselves are working to reduce their user’s environmental impact through a set of features. This includes helping people reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through Search, Maps and Travel apps. You might have noticed that when searching for a flight or hotel on Google, they include the CO2 count of each flight and how sustainable your stay will be. Google also have declared to run its offices and data centres entirely on locally sourced carbon-free energy by 2030. This puts them ahead of the curve compared to any other tech companies and at last count, they run on 67 percent clean energy.
How do you bring in fresh changes for your own, smaller company? Well, it appears that many businesses are being proactive by searching for more sustainable options – whether that’s brands or products. In the last five years, searches for sustainable packaging have risen by 213%. If you’re an SME offering a sustainable product or service, it’s important to consider your online ranking and social media posts that answer those green queries.
It’s not just about the physical items that we invest in, but also about the digital ones too. If Google is displaying sustainable credentials for travel, it won’t be long before they could signpost websites that use more eco-friendly/carbon neutral servers. We’re proud at Brace that all the servers we host our clients’ websites on through our sister company, WhiteLight are 100% carbon neutral. So, both Brace and our 900-plus hosting clients have been doing their bit for the planet for the last five years. It’s not just Google that is proving to be the only browsers making waves in the environmentally friendly sector, as sustainable browser Ecosia is becoming popular too.
You’d be amazed at how much of your website, social media and other online footprints are no longer used or are out of date. This can often affect how environmentally impactful you are. It’s time for a good old-fashioned clear out to reduce and recycle duplicate content, and remove useless content or pages that just aren’t performing anymore.
There are plenty of ways to make your website more sustainable such as using icons instead of high-res images, removing unused scripts and reducing the page size just to name a few.
There is also an intelligent website that measures how much your website is impacting the planet. Clever huh?
We’ve all got to start somewhere, and it’s becoming more and more apparent how much our web usage is having an effect on climate change. Speak to Brace today to see how we can include sustainable factors into your website, and help raise awareness of how your brand is taking steps to combat climate change.
