Sustainable web design in Lincolnshire for climate conscious clients.

A sustainable website is one that is designed to minimise its impact on the environment and to be maintainable over the long term. We ensure that every one of our websites adheres to the following:

1. Energy efficiency: A sustainable website should use as little energy as possible during its operation. This can be achieved through the use of energy-efficient servers, as well as through the optimisation of the website's code and design to minimise the amount of resources required to load and operate the site.

2. Accessibility: A sustainable website should be accessible to as many users as possible, regardless of their device, location, or ability. This can be achieved through the use of responsive design, as well as through the implementation of accessibility features such as alt text for images and descriptive link text.

3. Maintainability: A sustainable website should be easy to maintain and update over time. This can be achieved through the use of clean, well-organised code and the implementation of a content management system (CMS) to make it easier to update and manage the site.

Energy efficiency is an important factor in the sustainability of a website because the energy used to power and operate the website can have a significant impact on the environment. As a sustainable web design agency we ensure our websites are as energy efficient as possible by:

1. Use energy-efficient servers: The servers that host a website use a significant amount of energy, so using servers that are energy-efficient can help to reduce the site's energy consumption. We use Kinsta when working with WordPress sites or Laravel Forge when using Statamic.

2. Optimise code and design: The code and design of a website can have a big impact on its energy efficiency. By optimising the code to minimise the number of resources required to load and operate the site, and by designing the site to be lightweight and streamlined, the website can use less energy. We code every site from the ground up to ensure there's as little unused code as possible for each project.

3. Use caching: Caching is a technique that stores frequently used data in a temporary storage area, so that it can be accessed more quickly and efficiently. By using caching, a website can reduce the amount of energy required to access and load data, which can help to make the site more energy-efficient.

4. Use a content delivery network (CDN): A CDN is a network of servers that are distributed around the world, and that are used to deliver content to users based on their location. By using a CDN, a website can reduce the amount of energy required to deliver its content, as the content can be delivered from a server that is closer to the user.

5. Turn off unnecessary services: Many websites have a number of services running in the background that are not essential to the operation of the site. By turning off these unnecessary services, a website can reduce its energy consumption.

Accessibility is an important factor in the sustainability of a website because it ensures that the site can be used by as many people as possible. We ensure at least an AA standard of accessibility when building our websites this can include the following:

• Responsive design: A website that uses responsive design will automatically adjust its layout and formatting to fit the size and orientation of the device being used to view it. This ensures that the site is accessible to users on a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers.

• Alt text for images: Alt text is a short description of an image that is displayed in place of the image if it cannot be displayed for some reason. Alt text helps users who are visually impaired understand the content of an image, and it also helps search engines understand the content of the site.

• Descriptive link text: Links on a website should use descriptive text that accurately reflects the content of the page being linked to. This helps users understand the context of the link and enables them to decide whether or not to follow it.

• Keyboard accessibility: A website should be navigable using only a keyboard, so that users who cannot use a mouse can still access its content. This can be achieved through the use of tabbing and other keyboard shortcuts.

• Colour contrast: The text and background colours used on a website should have sufficient contrast to make the text legible for users with visual impairments. This can be checked using a color contrast tool.

By designing a website with these and other accessibility considerations in mind, it can be made more sustainable by ensuring that it is accessible to a wider range of users.

If you already have a website and are interested in how you can make it more sustainable as a sustainable web design agency we can provide this by doing the following:

1. Assess the website's current performance: Start by evaluating the website's current performance in terms of energy efficiency, resource use, and other sustainability metrics. This can be done using tools such as website performance monitoring software and website auditing tools.

2. Identify areas for improvement: Look for opportunities to improve the website's sustainability by identifying areas where it is currently using more resources than necessary. This could include optimising the website's code and design to reduce the amount of resources required to load and operate the site, or implementing energy-saving measures such as using energy-efficient servers or hosting the site on a renewable energy platform.

3. Implement changes: Once you have identified areas for improvement, implement changes to the website to make it more sustainable. This could involve updating the website's code and design, switching to more energy-efficient servers or hosting platforms, or implementing other sustainability-focused changes.

4. Test and monitor the results: Test the changes you have made to ensure that they are effective and do not negatively impact the website's performance. Regularly monitor the website's performance and resource use to ensure that it remains sustainable over time.

5. Repeat the process: As the website evolves and changes, continue to audit and optimise it to ensure that it remains sustainable. This could involve regularly reviewing the website's performance and identifying new opportunities for improvement.

We are committed to operating in a responsible and sustainable manner. Some of the steps that we have taken to minimise our environmental impact include:

• Offsetting our carbon emissions: We offset our carbon emissions by purchasing carbon credits to support renewable energy projects. We carefully vet these projects so we only invest ones that can offset as quickly as possible.

• Using renewable energy: We source our electricity from renewable energy sources, including wind and solar power.

• Reducing energy consumption: We have implemented measures to reduce our energy consumption, including optimising our data centres and using energy-efficient servers and other equipment.

• Promoting sustainable practices: We encourage our employees to adopt sustainable practices in their personal lives and at work, such as using public transportation, reducing waste, and conserving energy and adopting a vegan lifestyle.

In addition to these efforts, we are also committed to conducting its research and operations in an ethical and responsible manner, and being transparent about our activities.

As a sustainable web design agency we are committed to building long lasting relationships with our clients. Because of this we typically spread the cost of our websites over a 1 to 2 year period. This way after the website has launched we can continually strive to improve the performance to continue to lower its environmental impact well into its lifespan.