One of the first thing a web designer interested in sustainability should ask themselves is how “green” or sustainable their current site is. I’m using the term “green,” but remember that web sustainability consists of several features in design, programming, and project workflow.
Check Your Site
The Green Web Foundation, active since 2006, has launched a web host grading service. According to their mission statement,
One day, the Internet will run entirely on renewable energy. The Green Web Foundation develops tools to speed up that transition… We started with a database of technical parameters of green hosters, and a Green Web Check. This resulted in a system against which any website could be checked on greenness.
You can check your own hosted sites via their analysis apps, accessed from here:
http://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/
The Green Web Foundation also provides an API used by two other services highlighted here. These services, in addition to the green-ness of the web host, also look at features of the web page design and programming to determine an overall web sustainability score.
Chicago-based MightyBytes operates the EcoGrader service, which can create an overall sustainability score for any website. It uses the Green Web Foundation API in part of the overall sustainability computations for a site:
More Reading
MightyBytes also operates an independent blog on web sustainability:
http://www.mightybytes.com/blog/sustainable-web-design/
https://www.pinterest.com/timfrick/sustainable-web-design/
U.K. based EcoHostReviews uses the Green Web Foundation data to curate and review green hosting companies.
