In September 2023, the first version of the Web sustainability guidelines was released. In December 2024, the focus gained momentum by officially joining the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) ecosystem.
In the meantime, we are very committed to limiting the company's impact and pay particular attention to the type of project we are involved in. However, we never really measured the digital impact of what we deliver: a website uses bandwidth. Bandwidth consumes electricity. Producing electricity emits CO2e, which contributes to the greenhouse effect.
Plus, while internet connection speeds are getting faster and our devices get more powerful, web pages also get heavier. The result is simple: Browsing the internet is not really faster today than it was 10 years ago. Suppose you have 4G with 2 bars nowadays. In that case, you might have to wait a while for your browser to load a webpage, creating a new accessibility issue without mentioning the frustration in the user experience.
Optimisation coupled with a bit of moderation could solve some of the unnecessary hardware pressures on smartphones we donāt even keep for 3 years. Eco-design is one part of the puzzle when it comes to making our device last longer. And as an agency creating websites, we have an impact on that puzzle piece, so we should do something about it.
The Liip Assessment Platform for Digital Sustainability.
The Web sustainability guidelines expand environmental matters beyond CO2e, by including economic and social issues in the balance. This is great as most tools such as online calculators mainly focus on bandwidth usage and technical elements related to efficiency, but these tools lack the subjectivity of a human being in terms of sustainability criteria.
The W3C guidelines include over 300 success criteria and 1600 resources, so we decided to turn them into a tool. We selected about a hundred of these criteria and developed a platform that makes it easier to understand and asses the level of eco-design of a digital product.
It is split in four chapters: UX, Frontend, Backend & Infrastructure and Product/Business Management.
While developing this audit platform and by testing it a few times internally, we noticed that most of the guidelines were known already by Liipers. Thatās good news, but just knowing them does not mean that they're integrated into our projects by default, because we lack a systematic approach. Our platform aims to solve this issue in two steps:
- Upskill Liipers in digital sustainability and improve existing processes to become more efficient and eco-friendlyā¦
- ā¦ while creating robust, high-performance digital products for our customers and partners, because sustainable design requirements are increasingly present in projects.
In addition, we want to be as transparent as possible by providing a document that compiles the results as well as access to the full audit results. We also add to our audit the results from other tools such as Ecograder or Google Lighthouse in order to give more details on the level of sustainability.
As sustainable web design is likely not ājust a phaseā, we value continuous improvement.
We canāt predict the future, but we do think that sustainable web design is a bit like responsive web design was 15 years ago: it is not going to go away.
As with the WCAG Accessibility Guidelines for public administration websites, it is likely to see regulations in the future about digital sustainability.
The biggest challenge of integrating these kinds of practices is not really technical, but rather improving our existing processes so that the said practices become working habits.
Getting a perfect result tomorrow with this audit tool is a bit far-fetched, but by using it in our projects we can begin a process of continuous improvement and measure the level of sustainability of our products over time.
Beyond screens
This tool is an excellent way for Liip to explore new paths with partners eager to develop responsible digital practices within their company. As a part of the audit is dedicated to these practices, we can go beyond eco-design, and provide guidance
As digital experts, we can combine digitalization and sustainability to help your business thrive.
Let's get in touch!