This guide is intended for users who have chosen Infomaniak, a hosting provider committed to the planet: you will find below the details of the calculation method used to display CO2 on invoices, as well as some tips to reduce your own digital footprint.

Introduction

• For Web Hosting and Mail services, Infomaniak displays the amount of CO2 emitted annually, a figure based on a rigorous Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method that combines two key factors:
  1. Material impact (Full life cycle)
     • Using emission factors from the ResilioDB database, the calculation includes emissions generated during the manufacturing (BLD), transport (DIS), and end-of-life/recycling (EOL) of each piece of equipment (servers, RAM, disks, etc.).
  2. Energy impact (Actual consumption)
     • The actual electricity consumption of the servers is measured via IPMI probes.
     • This energy is then converted into CO2 equivalent using Infomaniak's specific energy mix, which is very low in carbon (11.77g CO2eq/kWh).
• The total impact is then distributed according to the customer's unit of usage (per hosted website or per mailbox).

What can you do?

If the hosting provider optimizes its infrastructure, the end-user also plays a key role. Here's how to reduce the environmental impact of your services.

For websites

The goal is to minimize the energy consumption of servers and visitors' devices:

• Technical optimization: Compress images, minify scripts, and use modern formats (WebP).
• Clean design: Limit autoplay videos, advertisements, and heavy scripts that consume bandwidth.
• Best practices: For WordPress in particular, it is recommended to consult the GreenIT guides.

For email

Email communication can also be optimized:

• Simplicity: Prefer plain text emails over HTML emails and limit the use of large, graphical signatures.
• Attachments: Prefer sending download links (via kDrive or SwissTransfer) instead of large attachments, or use compressed PDF format.
• Cleanup: Unsubscribe from unnecessary newsletters and use tracking tools to avoid sending emails that are not opened.

It is recommended to regularly monitor statistics to improve environmental performance. While waiting for Infomaniak's future integrated tools, it is possible to audit the impact of web pages via GreenFrame.io.