What contribution does digital marketing make to carbon emissions?

Mar 1

What is low carbon web development?

We caught up with digital carbon expert, and fellow member of the Good Business Charter, Kayleigh from Kakadu Creative to share her insight and what we can do to help mitigate the impact of our digital activity.

What impact does our digital marketing activity have on carbon emissions?

A huge impact.

An interesting statistic from a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation found that one Instagram post by Cristiano Ronaldo to his 240m followers uses the same energy as 10 UK homes would in a year. Now we don't all have social media followings on the scale of Cristiano Ronaldo, but this gives you an idea of the impact our digital marketing activity can and does have on energy usage and carbon emissions.

People don't realise that our internet usage emits more carbon emissions than the aviation industry. It also currently uses 10% of the global energy supply, and this is set to double to 20% by 2025. This means that the impact our internet usage has and the carbon emissions it releases, are set to increase significantly in a relatively short period of time.

It can be a hard thing to get your head around, but if you take a moment to think about how much we use the Internet in our daily lives you can quickly see why it’s such a big issue.

With it being such a big issue, what can we do as SME businesses, can we really make a difference?

When you look at the scale of the problem, it can feel incredibly daunting and out of your control, but in reality, we all have a part to play in tackling this issue.

Whilst SME’s may be small in size, they are mighty in number. So if each and every SME took steps to tackle their digital carbon emissions we could make a really positive change.

And I’m pleased to tell you that there are lots of things we can all do to tackle your digital carbon emissions, no matter the size of your business.

To help businesses and organisations on this journey, we’ve written a guide called ‘An Introduction to Digital Carbon Emissions’. It breaks down the issue and has tips and actionable advice that any business can implement across eight key areas. It’s completely free and people can download it here.

You specialise in low-carbon web development, what does this mean?

A sustainable or low-carbon website is one that has been designed and built in a way that means it has a small carbon footprint. This is achieved through a range of methods. For example, auto-playing videos are incredibly data-intensive and therefore use a lot of energy, which means they emit lots of carbon emissions. So a low-carbon website wouldn’t use any form of auto-playing video. Likewise, a low-carbon website will be mindful of the amount of images used on the site, as well as animation, complex functionality and plugins; essentially, anything that has a large file size, as it will be energy intensive and emit higher levels of carbon emissions.

Alongside this, it's focusing on the content and user experience of a site. You want to make sure that it's easy for a user to find the information they need and take action without having to visit lots of pages. This is because each page a user loads needs energy to transfer the data. So the fewer pages someone has to visit, the less energy is needed and therefore, fewer carbon emissions will be created.

Often people can think that a low carbon website will be a boring website. They may assume that it will just be a blank page with some basic text, but that's not the case. A low-carbon website can be a modern, well-designed, engaging and exciting online experience, but still have a low-carbon footprint. This is something we champion here at Kakadu Creative, and as partners of the Eco-Friendly Web Alliance, we're on a mission to show that low-carbon websites don't mean you have to compromise on having a great online presence.

Plus, having a low-carbon website isn't just a great thing for the environment. As it’s lightweight it will be faster to load which is great for both search engine optimisation and user experience. It's a win, win, win.

How did you get involved in this area of work?

Looking back, I can’t place exactly what first triggered my journey into the world of digital sustainability. It's something that we've been working on and talking about for a number of years now, and it's become so ingrained in the way we work that it's just second nature.

As for my personal ethical journey, that started as I became more aware of environmental issues, land usage, animal agriculture, waste and plastic pollution while travelling. After seeing the impact human activities have on our environment and local communities I couldn’t sit by and not try to be a part of the solution.

Luckily for me, my business partner is also my other half, so we were both aligned in wanting to use our business for good and help other business owners do more than just make a profit.

As part of that, we’ve been focusing on running Kakadu Creative as ethically and sustainably as we can. We see raising awareness of issues like digital carbon emissions and helping other businesses to take steps to reduce their impact as key parts of our mission.

Do you think initiatives like B-Corp are off-putting to smaller brands in the sense that it seems like such a big ask for small organisations, for little reward?

Yes B Corp is a relatively big investment in regards to your time and potentially your revenue. However, there is merit in having B Corp status if you’re looking to work with purely ethical businesses, or you’re looking to target an ethically minded consumer.

However, if B Corp is out of reach for you currently, there are other organisations, such as the Good Business Charter or the Organisation for Responsible Businesses which are less intensive to go through but still set you apart from the ‘business as normal’ crowd.

What would be your one piece of advice to businesses who want to do more when it comes to playing their part to reduce their carbon footprint?

Prioritise it.

Block some time in your diary either weekly, fortnightly or monthly to give yourself the opportunity to research, plan and implement changes in your business.

If you have a team, speak to them about the issue and the fact that you want to tackle it. You may find that you have a secret sustainability champion or two, who would be happy to take on the task of reducing your digital carbon emissions.

Alongside that, don’t be afraid to ask questions, lean on your network and let people know what you’re trying to do.

And remember, tackling your digital carbon emissions can have benefits that go beyond doing what’s right for the planet. It can also save costs, improve your online user experience, boost your SEO and put you ahead of your competitors.

If our readers want to talk to you about this subject, how can they get in contact with you?

We’re more than happy to chat with your audience and help them on their digital carbon emissions journey. They can find and connect with me personally on LinkedIn, and they can reach the wider Kakadu team through our website.

We’re a friendly bunch, and no question is a stupid question.

Vicky Clapham