The digital economy has long been viewed as “lightweight” vs traditional retail. Many thought that sending an email or starting an business via the internet was “green” because there was no paper and no bricks-and-mortar store.
The actual reality is much heavier. The infrastructure that supports the internet – data centers, global networks to transport data around the world, and all of the hundreds of billions of devices that make up the worldwide network – is responsible for almost 4% of all greenhouse gas emissions. For comparison, if the internet were a country, it would be ranked as the world’s 6th largest polluter, equal to the entire global aviation sector.
As the volume of online shopping continues to expand, brand owners have a new goal. Creating a sustainable web store is no longer simply an ethical option, but now is a necessary strategy to remain competitive in business. Creating a carbon neutral web store optimizes your SEO, improves user experience (UX) and creates brand loyalty with consumers.
Why Carbon-Neutral E-Commerce is a Growth Strategy
There is no doubt about it; going green brings significant value to the business. More consumers today value sustainability than ever before. As per Nielsen, 73% of all shoppers are willing to change their shopping behaviour to lower their environmental impact.
From a pure business perspective, sustainability will accelerate performance for the corporation. A sustainable website, by definition, will be both efficient and effective. By focusing on a leaner website (weight-wise), you also are optimizing your website for Google’s Core Web Vitals as well. Google calculates ‘speed’ as one of its four key factors when determining the ranking of websites in its search engine. Therefore, creating a green/eco-friendly website will develop both a faster business and a more conversion-oriented company.
1. Optimize Your Foundation: Green Web Hosting
The start of creating a sustainable web store is found in the location of the data that you are managing. The typical data centre uses a large amount of electricity for the operation of servers, as well as cooling systems to ensure that the servers do not overheat.
For your web store to become carbon neutral, the company that hosts your store must support 100% renewable energy.
- RECs Vs. Direct Renewable Energy Source: Some web hosts utilize Renewable Energy Cedit (REC) in an attempt to offset their use of “brown” electricity. If possible, use web hosts that use renewable energy sources directly, or providers such as Google Cloud Platform, which have been 100% carbon neutral since 2007.
- Location/Edge Computing: If the location of your web host is geographically close to your main target audience, the distance that the data must travel across cables, which is referred to as latency, is minimized, thus reducing the amount of energy consumption.
- The Green Web Audit: Confirm whether your current host has high environmental credentials by using The Green Web Foundation to locate those hosting companies.
2. Digital Sobriety: Eco-Friendly Web Design Techniques
Though basic optimization is performed internally, many high-growth companies work with a specialized Ecommerce development company to audit their technical stack and implement deep level “green” code optimizations that optimize aesthetics and energy efficiency.
High-Performance Image Optimization
The largest sources of a website’s carbon footprint is images.
- Next Generation Formats – Switch your images from JPEG for WebP or AVIF format. They compress better than JPEGs which reduces the energy used to load the page.
- Lazy Loading – Load your images only when they’re in the user’s view. This reduces wasting energy on loading content that the user will never see.
- Video Audit – Do not use auto play videos; if you have to use video content, use short video clips. (Keep in mind the video should be on an efficient player.)
Lightweight Code & “Clean” CSS
“Bloated” code has a negative impact on the overall health of your computer and can create added strain on your CPU (central processing unit) – requiring more power and draining cell phone battery life.
- Minification – of CSS and JavaScript files can help reduce the number of characters loaded from a web server.
- System Fonts Vs Web Fonts – Custom fonts require multiple requests to a web server. By using system fonts (like Arial or San Francisco) you provide users with an immediate, energy efficient experience.
- Dark Mode – Dark mode uses much less energy than light backgrounds on OLED screens. Offering a way for users to switch to dark mode is a very simple long-term sustainability strategy.
3. Greening the Supply Chain: Shipping & Logistics
The impact of an online store does not remain just on the internet. There’s also a real, physical footprint that goes from the warehouse to your front door. Many times, this is where most of the carbon emissions in e-commerce occur.
Carbon-Neutral Shipping Solutions
The last mile of delivering your online order creates significant amounts of pollution. Consider adding carbon offset solutions to your checkout process to help mitigate this.
- Offsetting Integrations – Solutions like Shopify Planet or EcoCart will determine exactly how much CO2 was released for your shipment and provide you with funding for verified reforestation or carbon capture projects.
- Sustainable Packaging – Stop using plastic poly mailers, and start using recycled cardboard mailers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or plant-based compostable mailers.
The “Circular” Approach to Returns
The return process is extremely harmful to our climate, creating twice the carbon footprint of one purchase. The way to reduce return rates is to improve how well the products fit using the following:
- Provide high-definition images of each product and detailed size charts
- Create virtual fitting rooms for customers using Augmented Reality (AR).
4. Measurement and Transparency: Avoiding “Greenwashing”
The “green” industry must be transparent in order to create relationships based on integrity and trust. You do not have to start by being completely honest but you do have to be sincere about how you are working toward achieving total transparency.
- Audit Your CO2 Impact – Use the website carbon calculator to determine your CO2 baseline (CO2 per page view) for your website.
- Create a Sustainability Page – On this page be sure to disclose your journey toward carbon neutrality and any certifications that you may hold such as B Corp or 1% for the Planet.
- Share Your Values – As consumers see brands that hold themselves accountable for both their digital and physical footprint will become long-term advocates versus simply one-time purchasers of a product.
Conclusion
Creating a successful retailer by utilizing sustainable eCommerce is becoming common practice in retail, rather than a specialty. Purchasing green hosting, practicing “lean” web development, and auditing your supply chain are ways to create a faster, more robust and values-aligned business with the 21st century. Sustainability is a long-term goal and will enhance the website’s SEO performance and conversion rate based upon what you do now to improve each of your heaviest assets.