First article
The story of how we improved the estimated environmental impact of our website, even with the addition of more data.
We loved our old website. It reflected the mission of our studio well but we must admit it had one major flaw. We received a lot of feedback that our homepage animation lacked accessibility and was using quite a bit of computational power to run. We had to do something about it at some point. That time came once we evolved our branding, adding some elements here and there – a new step for us. Having been building low-carbon websites for a few years, we are constantly questioning our approach and trying to find better ways to get results, communicate them and find room for improvement. And at this point in time, the deeper you dive into the low-carbon impact measurement, the more questions, rather than answers, can come up.
The challenge of measuring carbon emissions of digital products
Accurately assessing their carbon emissions is a puzzle we're still solving, mainly because there's no one-size-fits-all method for measuring their energy use. Here are some of the challenges faced today:
Lack of Data: Gathering precise information on energy use is difficult due to limited access to data from hosting providers, data centers, and device manufacturers.
No Standardization: There is no universally accepted method for measuring the energy consumption of digital products, leading to varying results from different tools and approaches.
Multiple Variables: Digital products are influenced by countless factors, including user behavior, hardware, software, and network configurations, making it difficult to pinpoint their energy consumption accurately.
Geographic Variations: With users accessing digital products globally, the energy sources used vary by region, making environmental impact calculations more complex.
Lack of Back-End Measurement Tools: The back-end infrastructure, often overlooked, significantly contributes to energy use, but quantifying it is challenging.
Unpredictable User Behavior: User actions, such as streaming video versus reading text, affect energy consumption differently, making predictions challenging.
Ignoring Production Phase: Designing and developing digital products require energy consumption, which is often overlooked in assessments.
Difficulty Measuring Other Environmental Impacts: Measuring factors like water consumption is also a challenge.
