We check the weather forecast before going out. We connect to online maps to see the route while driving, then we arrive at our destination and look for a cafe where we can have a good coffee before our business meeting.
We achieve vital information for our daily life only with a click, we touch our screen many times a day to satisfy our wishes. It looks like a harmless action, but it isn’t like that. A gray world is moving behind our cheerful and colorful touch-screen and it is made of supercomputers housed in huge data centers where our data is collected, processed, and exchanged. These machine are always on and require gigantic cooling systems to avoid overheating. Meanwhile, the planet is overheating due to the ever-increasing use of more powerful systems. It is a catastrophic vicious circle of which only few are aware, most of us are focus on our shiny electronic jewels.
An increasingly heavy ecological footprint
A web page loading realease 20 milligrams of CO2 into the atmosphere per second. In case of more complex sites, the carbon dioxide produced can reach 300 milligrams per second.
The whole web consumes 7% of electricity and produces 2% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, as much as the whole air traffic of the planet or as much as a country like Germany.
The problem is getting worse: there are 3.5 billion web users in the world anche the number is constantly growing. The Internet traffic is growing as weel and soon it will experience a drastic peak because of Internet of Things (IoT) and the advent of 5G. In a decade Internet would consume a fifth of the electricity produced in the world.
The whole web consumes 7% of electricity and produces 2% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, as much as the whole air traffic of the planet or as much as a country like Germany.
The problem is getting worse: there are 3.5 billion web users in the world anche the number is constantly growing. The Internet traffic is growing as weel and soon it will experience a drastic peak because of Internet of Things (IoT) and the advent of 5G. In a decade Internet would consume a fifth of the electricity produced in the world.
Reducing digital impact
If we want to lighten our footprint on the planet, it is necessary to adopt responsible and eco-sustainable behaviors in every daily activity, including the production, maintenance, and consumption of digital content. It is essential for the entire sector to radically change its priorities.
A few simple measures are enough to make websites more environmentally friendly. By improving performance, these measures also help improving the user experience and SEO of sites. A win-win for Mother Nature and net surfers.
Here some examples of what we do to improve the energy efficiency of our sites:
A few simple measures are enough to make websites more environmentally friendly. By improving performance, these measures also help improving the user experience and SEO of sites. A win-win for Mother Nature and net surfers.
Here some examples of what we do to improve the energy efficiency of our sites:
- Optimize images by reducing file size
- Use videos strategically
- Employ Lazy Load techniques for multimedia content
- Set up web caching correctly
- Delete unnecessary content
- Focus on usability to make navigation easier
- Choose eco-friendly hosting
A New Digital Ethic
We can do more to reduce the impact of digital technologies. It's a matter of adopting responsible principles and practices in our daily activities, both at work and in private life. XTRA is inspired by the "digital sobriety" principle proposed by the Shift Project. It is a research group based in Paris that addresses issues related to the energy transition, that is the transition to an eco-sustainable economy and the use of renewable energies. Digital sobriety means buying less powerful machines, replacing them less often and not using high-energy approaches in digital projects.
XTRA creates websites with high efficiency levels (above 90-95% of Google Lighthouse's Performance and Best Practice parameters). What does this mean? In addition to the measures listed above, it means carefully analyzing user needs, offering them only content they seek, making projects adaptable to every device, developing highly optimized custom code and avoiding unnecessary plugins.
In a nutshell, "efficient and effective projects" meticulously crafted for every single customer For XTRA. This is how we protect the environment: by professionally taking care of every detail of the projects we have made and continuously monitoring them for optimization.
We contribute in our own small way, lightening the ecological footprint of the digital technologies we use. We hope that a conscious use of the net, in the near future, can lead to improve our lives and preserve our wonderful planet.
For more details
XTRA creates websites with high efficiency levels (above 90-95% of Google Lighthouse's Performance and Best Practice parameters). What does this mean? In addition to the measures listed above, it means carefully analyzing user needs, offering them only content they seek, making projects adaptable to every device, developing highly optimized custom code and avoiding unnecessary plugins.
In a nutshell, "efficient and effective projects" meticulously crafted for every single customer For XTRA. This is how we protect the environment: by professionally taking care of every detail of the projects we have made and continuously monitoring them for optimization.
We contribute in our own small way, lightening the ecological footprint of the digital technologies we use. We hope that a conscious use of the net, in the near future, can lead to improve our lives and preserve our wonderful planet.
For more details