Sustainable business ideas: the carbon footprint of our online presence
Being in marketing, I have to admit that I often judged businesses that I came across who didn’t seem to actively consider the environmental impact of what they were selling and producing.
I was so consumed by ensuring that the businesses I worked with had an awareness of their own impact (whether it be the equipment used in a sports centre, the materials used for a clothing company, or making sure I shared similar values to a coaching client) that I assumed my own impact was minimal. Because working on my laptop I don’t have any waste, I recycle all the paper I use, I don’t have a printer and I work from home so I don’t need to use the car to get to work either.
I was so so wrong.
I have just discovered that there is more carbon emitted from running the internet than all the airlines put together.
That’s terrifying.
My mate Krissie (who I met surfing in Portugal) has a new podcast - ‘Mindful Commerce’ - which seeks to highlight the environmental impact of the digital world. Just 5 minutes into the first episode and I’m already feeling a bit panicky.
They have introduced me to the concept of ‘green hosting’.
‘Green hosting’ is a way of keeping your website online that uses a server that runs solely on renewable energy.
It’s all good and well that Shopify and Wix claim that they are ‘green’, but using green energy is NOT the same as using dirty energy and then trying off-set it by planting trees or taking your own cup to get take-away coffee. It is always better to just not produce the carbon in the first place.
But my entire business revolves around building websites and content on a non-green platform. What the hell am I supposed to do?! Should I just give up and stop encouraging more people to build on a platform that is helping destroy the planet? Should I pivot and learn how to design websites on a totally different platform?
For small businesses, with limited resources (esp. budget!) re-building their website from scratch isn’t an option.
But what I’ve learnt from Krissie’s podcast is that it doesn't necessarily need to be in our field of vision to start over entirely.
The best thing we can do is to reduce our relative carbon footprint by changing what we already have (compared to the old version of the same website).
The structure of a website really affects the amount of energy it uses. So if we can be strategic in how we create our websites, we can reduce the percentage of energy used to power them. Small changes can still make a difference.
Here are my top 5 sustainable business ideas when it comes to reducing the carbon footprint of your online presence.
1. Turn your laptop charger off when your battery is full.
I know it sounds basic, but it can still reduce the amount of energy you’re wasting. Fully charge your laptop, unplug and switch off at the wall, then let your laptop go down to 0, before repeating the process.
It might mean you have to get up out of your chair mid-sentence, but this easy adaptation should become part of your routine.
2. Compress images and try to avoid videos on your website.
Krissie’s guests in her first podcast — the lovely guys from heylow creative studios — explain that websites can be given a ‘weight’ depending on the amount of carbon that is emitted to run them.
The heavier the website, the more carbon is emitted. So we can work to make our websites ‘lighter’ by ensuring image files aren’t huge (therefore taking ages to load).
Programmes like compressnow.com will take images up to 10mb and let you make the files smaller, without compromising the quality of the image.
This is actually much better for the user’s experience on your site - waiting for stuff to load means a potential customer might get frustrated and leave your website.
But fast loading times mean a good experience (and the longer you can keep someone on your website, the better it is for your SEO too)!
3. Minimise the amount of time you spend on social media.
Social media platforms are built to make it incredibly easy for you to find yourself (25 minutes later) down a very deep rabbit hole.
These platforms, where video is preferred over text or links (just think about the new addition of Reels to Instagram or how popular TikTok is), use a ton of energy to stream and play video.
As small business owners we need to be using our time efficiently. So have a set of goals or intentions for your time on Instagram.
Maybe you want to engage with 10 new accounts, reply to all your poll participants or record a live, planned by a set of bullet points.
Be strategic and have a plan before you go on there. Set yourself a strict time limit and once you’ve fulfilled your goal, get the hell off there.
4. Be succinct in what you have to say.
Copywriting can be one of the biggest hurdles when creating your website. We have so much to say and certain points we want to get across, but often it ends up being a lot of waffle.
The more to the point you are, the less content there is to load (meaning less energy used).
As a pretty great side-effect of being clear in your communication, if someone can quickly understand and see the importance of what you do, it’ll be easier to convert them into paying customers.
Waffle means more content, which will use up more energy to load (and the more confused a potential customer will be, the more likely you are to lose a sale as a result).
Less content on your page also means quicker loading speeds, which will positively impact your SEO authority.
5. Think about your customer’s route to your end goal.
You want to effectively and efficiently get people to the checkout page/sign-up page/enquiry form of your website.
The fewer steps they need to take to fulfil the action you most want them to take, the less time they’re spending on your website.
IF the route to your end goal is long-winded or unclear, a scroller is going to get fed up of going round in circles and possibly leave your site altogether from frustration.
So a clear journey through your site is also an epic way of boosting your conversion rates.
If you sell online and want to support others doing their bit to be more sustainable, minimise your own impact, and share more innovative ideas, join us in the Mindful Commerce community.
Big up to Krissie and Rich for creating such an eye-opening free resource for us all to re-analyse our learned business habits. Looking forward to some more mind-sprarking content from you guys!