t cht lk and the rest , up-to-date , your organisation is likely to benefit from enhanced efficiency , which means doing more work with the same or fewer resources , which is better for the planet . When Umbraco moved to . NET Core it made a massive difference to the efficiency of the CMS . Staying on top of this can deliver sustainability and efficiency benefits and an improved security posture .”
t cht lk and the rest , up-to-date , your organisation is likely to benefit from enhanced efficiency , which means doing more work with the same or fewer resources , which is better for the planet . When Umbraco moved to . NET Core it made a massive difference to the efficiency of the CMS . Staying on top of this can deliver sustainability and efficiency benefits and an improved security posture .”
7 . Load web content efficiently
Implementing lazy loading makes data transfers of images , videos and iframes more efficient by limiting what is loaded within the viewport . However , web designers should avoid applying lazy loading to hero images which are always visible at the top of a page , as this will cause the website to load slowly and impact user experience .
8 . Make your site carbon-aware experiences that you build are fast , which is good for users and keeping your application efficient , which is good for sustainability .
“ The more data you ’ re transferring across the wire between systems and the end-user , the more energy you and your users will end up using . Round trips take time and slow performance .” For this reason , Hobbs advises using technology such as Graph QL . “ Ensuring that you ’ re only fetching what you need delivers performance and sustainability benefits .”
At the more advanced end of the scale , Rick Butterfield suggests using open-source APIs to build carbonaware websites . “ The Green Software Foundation has come out with a Carbon Aware software development kit that allows developers to create software that does more when the electricity is from renewable sources and less when the electricity is from fossil fuels . Open APIs allow us to create this type of service for clients . Functionality of the site can be altered based on current grid usage , where your servers are located , or where your users are . As an example , images can be disabled if the server load is too high , or they could be stripped back to display illustrations instead .”
Hobbs also advises that , if a platform or application has background jobs that can be run asynchronously , then plugging into services such as the Carbon Intensity API , allows organisations to ensure that they are run at the most carbon-efficient time and place : “ Asynchronous operations can be a game-changer from a sustainability point of view .
“ There ’ s a theme here : less data being transferred is good for the planet , and results in faster loading sites which provide better experiences for users .”
10 . Consider using JAMStack
Butterfield also recommends introducing user features such as energy-saving toggles on screen and points to the carbon-aware site that digital agency , Kruso , developed for Danish local council , Herning Kommune . With one click , all pictures and videos are removed and colours are muted to greyscale , reducing energy consumption and CO 2 emissions by up to 70 % across the site and making the site load much more quickly . “ Lots of other companies are now starting to introduce this feature ,” said Butterrfield .
9 . Use Design Patters to optimise performance
There are commercial benefits to be gained from introducing a regular performance optimisation regime advises James Hobbs : “ Any unnecessary work is a big contributor to emissions , where systems are sat around idling , or repeating operations that are failing . Design patterns , like the Circuit Breaker pattern , can prevent wasting unnecessary cycles and energy . Baking in performance optimisation will ensure the digital
The Sustainability Team also advocate using architectural approaches , such as JAMStack : “ Statically generating websites ahead of time , and
The experts also warn that stock images are often very large files and are best avoided .
delivering them via a content delivery network , means that the round trip for users is significantly reduced and it also takes a load off the backend system ,” said James Hobbs .
Andy Eva-Dale , Technical Director at digital agency , Tangent , took a JAMStack approach when building an agile , low-carbon website for UK Power Networks . Using Javascript , APIs and Markup , to pre-render webpages and distribute them on a CDN halved page load times , is more energy-efficient and reduced operational costs by 66 %. p
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