Discover eco-design to reduce the carbon footprint

This guide is for you because you have chosen (or will choose) Infomaniak as your host. This choice is not trivial. You are sensitive to ecology and want to do everything possible to reduce the carbon footprint on the Internet.

Infomaniak already thanks you for choosing this hosting provider that cares for the planet and for exploring the paths below to progress in the eco-design of your web environment.

Why act?

Websites consume energy to function, and the use of the Internet is one of the main causes of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to choosing an ethical host that uses renewable energy sources to power its servers, you can also contribute to reducing these emissions by adopting eco-responsible practices in the design and management of your sites and Mail services.

How to act?

As mentioned earlier, Infomaniak takes action on various points, including its support department: it will assist you in choosing services tailored to your needs with a focus on environmental preservation, gather your feedback to optimize our practices and draw inspiration from your experiences, while also communicating the environmental challenges in the hosting sector to adopt good digital practices.

At your level, there are several ways to reduce your carbon footprint on the Internet:

Minimize energy consumption

To reduce the energy consumption of servers and users' computers: optimize images, use web fonts, use minified scripts and data compression technologies. Clean designs can help reduce bandwidth requirements.

Offer options to reduce data consumption by using lower quality images or providing streaming videos in different qualities, to disable trackers and advertisements that consume a lot of data.

For good practices dedicated to WordPress consult the GreenIT sheets.

Use eco-responsible technologies

Sustainable development technologies, such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, are more environmentally friendly.‍

Promote sustainability

Raise user awareness of the environmental impact of Internet technologies and encourage them to adopt eco-responsible practices. Including with the WordPress solution.

And what about email?

The same habits can be applied to your email communication:

• Use an eco-friendly signature that encourages recipients to reduce their environmental impact by using eco-friendly technologies or adopting eco-friendly practices…
• Use eco-friendly email management tools that utilize renewable energy sources and have eco-friendly policies regarding energy consumption…
• Use plain text emails instead of HTML emails, as HTML emails tend to consume more energy to be displayed…
• Use PDF attachments instead of heavier formats…
• Use unsubscribe features to avoid sending unwanted emails…
• Use tracking tools to find out how many people open your emails and thus know if you are sending too many or too few…

All these actions can be implemented gradually and should be adapted to the situation of each website. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Regularly monitor energy consumption statistics to continue improving the site's ecological performance. Infomaniak will offer tools in this direction in the future, but in the meantime, you can use https://greenframe.io.