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How better performing websites can help save
the planet
Jack Lenox
WordCamp Bordeaux, March 2019
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Me
2009 - 2013: Startup/agency work
2013 - present: Automattic (WordPress.com VIP since 2015)
2017: UK parliamentary candidate for the Green Party
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Part I: The Problem
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The Internet has an enormous carbon footprint
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...and it's rapidly growing
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The Internet produces about one billion tonnes of
COâ‚‚ every year...
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...and it's rising
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Poorly performing websites are bad for
the environment
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Part II: The Solution
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Sustainable Web Design
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Sustainable Web Design
1. Performance
2. Usability
3. Discoverability
4. Green Hosting
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Sustainable Web Design
1. Performance
2. Usability
3. Discoverability
4. Green Hosting
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Performance and usability
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Simplify the user interface
Background videos
Social media embeds
Carousels
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Get rid of them
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Reduce code
Create lean HTML
Simplify CSS
Use less script
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The most performant[, sustainable], accessible and easily maintainable feature of a
website is the one that you don't make in the first place.
- Heydon Pickering
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Use less script
This button weighs 50 KB.
A plain text link uses almost zero bytes.
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Images
Use the correct image
Compress images as much as possible
Lazy load
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The correct image...
JPG: Still images, photography
GIF: In the olden days used for animations, today should be avoided
PNG-8: Icons (but SVG is probably better)
PNG-24: Still images with transparency, generally to be avoided if possible
SVG: Icons, logos, etc.
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WebP
26% smaller than PNGs
25-34% smaller than JPGs
Support animation
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Compress
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Lazy load
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A word about fonts
Subset for just the characters you need
Be sparing in how many fonts you load
Serve them only in the .woff2 format if possible
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Backend stuff
Use HTTPS over HTTP2
Nginx with FastCGI Cache
WP Super Cache
gzip and brotli compression
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Sustainable Web Design
1. Performance
2. Usability
3. Discoverability
4. Green Hosting
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SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
WordPress SEO by Yoast
All in One SEO Pack
Neither of the above
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Accessibility
Adopt an accessibility-first mentality
Simple websites are, generally speaking, accessible by default
Follow best practices
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Sustainable Web Design
1. Performance
2. Usability
3. Discoverability
4. Green Hosting
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Part III: The Doing
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Taking this to an extreme
No images
No sidebar
No embeds
No menu navigation (it's on its own page)
Almost no additional HTTP requests
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In the Real World
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(417KB)
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(409KB)
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(379KB)
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(213KB)
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(435KB)
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(11KB)
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In conclusion
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Sustainable websites are
More performant
More user-friendly
More accessible
More server-friendly
More -friendly
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Merci beaucoup
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Any questions?*
@jacklenox | jacklenox.com
*Please don't ask me about Brexit
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Bibilography
electricityMap: www.electricitymap.org
Internet Health Report: internethealthreport.org
Greenpeace's ClickClean: www.clickclean.org
SustainableUX: sustainableux.com
"The average web page is 3MB. How much should we care?", Tammy Everts:
speedcurve.com/blog/web-performance-page-bloat/
"Designing for actual performance", Adam Silver: adamsilver.io/articles/designing-for-
actual-performance/
"Writing Less Damn Code", Heydon Pickering: www.heydonworks.com/article/on-writing-
less-damn-code
"How I dropped 250KB of dead CSS weight with PurgeCSS", Sarah Dayan:
medium.freecodecamp.org/how-i-dropped-250kb-of-dead-css-weight-with-purgecss-
28821049fb
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ImageOptim: imageoptim.com
"Lazy Loading Images and Video", Jeremy Wagner:
developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/lazy-loading-guidance/images-
and-video/
The Green Web Foundation: www.thegreenwebfoundation.org
SustyWP: sustywp.com
WebPagetest: www.webpagetest.org
Calibre: calibreapp.com
SpeedCurve: speedcurve.com
EcoGrader: ecograder.com
ecometer: ecometer.org
WebsiteCarbon: www.websitecarbon.com
Sustainable Servers petition: www.change.org/p/sustainable-servers-by-2024