This are some thoughts related to our first Monnou’s website redesign using Webflow in 2023.
When we talk about sustainability, circular economy, or positive impact, we often overlook the impacts of digital design. When thinking about a circular economy, physical or industrial products usually come to mind. It’s clear that these products affect raw material extraction, production, usage, and end-of-life disposal. But what about digital products? Websites, apps, and various platforms also have an impact. They consume energy, may lack accessibility or inclusivity, and their messaging can promote unsustainable behaviors. For this reason, sustainable digital design is a practice that’s here to stay.
Why opt for Sustainable Web Design?
What are the benefits of investing in sustainable web design?
First, as ethical brands with a positive impact, it allows us to align with our values and purpose. Considering sustainability in every aspect of our brand, including the website, helps avoid practices like greenwashing or social washing. With a sustainable brand and website, we communicate honestly with clients and collaborators.
Additionally, incorporating sustainability into the web design process itself saves design and development time. For instance, using agile methodologies (like Lean) promotes team well-being and reduces costs and risks when launching digital products and services.
A sustainable website not only consumes less energy but should also be more accessible. This enhances the user experience with faster load times, leaving visitors more satisfied.
Sustainable web design also makes content easy and quick to find, contributing to better SEO performance — in fact, SEO is a powerful ally of digital sustainability.
Certain web impact criteria are crucial for engaging with the public sector. For example, WCAG digital accessibility standards are mandatory to meet digital kit requirements. Could environmental sustainability requirements follow suit?
We already see how environmental sustainability is a prerequisite for accessing many grants and subsidies. In Europe, incentives for digital and ecological transition are increasing. The Next Generation funds primarily focus on digital transformation and sustainability. It seems that digitization and sustainability go hand in hand, but to make this a reality, we must consider the impacts of our digital solutions.
Designing a Sustainable Website
Okay, we’re convinced of the need for sustainable web design. But how do we put it into practice?
At Monnou, we’ve applied sustainability strategies to our own website.
For us, the first step to a sustainable website is ensuring the business itself is sustainable (or moving in that direction). Having a positive impact purpose, with sustainability embedded in the brand’s values and strategy, is essential. After all, if a brand doesn’t offer products or services that contribute to a better world, what’s the point of a sustainable website?
The next step could be choosing green hosting — a provider powered by renewable energy. More hosting providers are transitioning to renewable production, often without increasing costs for clients. In Monnou’s case, we chose Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is Webflow’s default and has committed to renewable energy production and continues advancing toward sustainability.
Another strategy we’ve adopted is content optimization. Reducing the number of images and videos saves significant energy. The images we do use are in lighter formats (like WebP instead of PNG) and sized appropriately for display.
Similarly, other website files should be optimized. For example, uploading only the necessary font weights instead of the entire set (light, regular, bold, extrabold). Reducing font families not only simplifies design but also boosts sustainability.
Content should be easy and fast to find. Designing an information architecture that makes content discoverable and applying good SEO practices is crucial. There’s a direct link between SEO, sustainability, and accessibility. For instance, Monnou includes alternative text (‘alt’) for all images, aiding visually impaired users and improving search engine visibility. If an image fails to load, the alt text can appear instead, enhancing the browsing experience.
Another sustainable strategy we implemented is lazy loading. This means off-screen content (not yet scrolled to) loads only when needed.
It’s also important to review and clean up unused code, as excess code slows down a website and makes it less sustainable.
Other accessibility aspects to consider include text contrast (titles, subtitles, etc.) and avoiding distracting visual elements that detract from the main content.
These are just some strategies for creating sustainable, high-impact web design. Another approach is using UX to guide users toward more sustainable decisions on your site or app. Inclusive, non-sexist language is also vital. Sustainable web design is a continuous journey of learning and exploration.
Evaluating Web Impact
How can we ensure our sustainable web design strategies are effective?
Although evaluating digital activity’s impact is complex, several tools can help. One example is Ecograder, developed by the agency Mightybytes.
Pages with heavy content, like homepages or project pages, tend to score lower. In contrast, content-light pages (with fewer images and videos) achieve higher scores. For instance, Monnou’s services page scores above 90/100, with CO₂ emissions below 0.2g per visit. Since the site runs on green servers, the energy comes from renewable sources.
Despite scoring well on evaluation tools, sustainability and sustainable web design are ongoing processes. There’s always room for improvement, and it’s crucial to keep exploring new strategies.