We’re online now more than ever. Virtual conferences and meetings will remain a part of our work as event professionals from here on. All this data comes with an environmental cost. There are steps you can do right now to help reduce your impact. First step, green your website.
The Impact of the Internet
Even if we can’t see it, the internet has a very big impact. 2% of all global carbon emissions come from electricity to power the internet. If the internet were a country, it out be the 6th largest emitter in the world.
There are many ways to make you website more energy efficient. Start by looking at your design. Reduce images where possible and avoid video. Ask yourself are they necessary in your messaging. If you must use video, disable auto-play and optimize your images. For your “on-the-go mobile site, use accelerated Mobile Pages–a stripped down version of HTML–for faster content loading. Faster in this instance, uses less energy. Also, try to make sure your data centers near where you are. Data traveling all over the globe uses energy!
Checking Your Impact
As a practitioner of #sustainableevents, have you checked all your business tools to make sure you’re walking the talk? For a one-off event site or for a small business, choose a shared hosting service for your website. This is the most eco-conscious type of hosting. You can be a part of the climate solution by making sure your website and your event website is hosted green. That means the energy to run the servers are powered by the sun or other renewable energy or uses offsetting emissions tools. Offsetting requires buying energy credits to replace the energy used by their servers.
The Green Web Foundation has a handy tool to easily check if your website host provider is green. Use the tool to enter the URL and they evaluate the site and provide a rating.
The Future Will Be Renewable
One day, the internet will run entirely on renewable energy. But until it does, you can decrease your carbon footprint by managing your content and choosing a web hosting provider that uses renewable energy. You can take it a step further and make sure your web provider is not just purchasing offsets. When you choose businesses that care, you are supporting companies that have similar values as you. Let your clients know you are walking the talk!
It’s an easy to green your website and switch to a provider powered by the sun! Click here to learn more!