The Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) provide recommendations to help digital teams make informed sustainable development decisions. They cover the planetary, people, and prosperity PPP) principles of digital products and services that organizations create and manage. These cross-functional guidelines aim to improve the web overall, including initiatives that leverage artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies delivered via the web.
To achieve an ethical and more humane web that works better for everyone and our shared planet, the Web Sustainability Guidelines encourage systems thinking, intersectionality, and cross-functional collaboration.
Some guidelines intentionally overlap with and signpost to other documents and specifications from W3C and other organizations. The purpose of this is not to reinterpret existing recommendations but rather to highlight how critical intersectionality and cross-functional collaboration are to successful sustainable development. To this end, while the guidelines are web-specific, they can serve as a conduit to enhance other sustainable development initiatives within an organization. WSG will not address every possible mechanism or strategy to become more sustainable.
Finally, sustainable development is measured by progress over perfection. It is not expected that organizations will adhere to every guideline within the specification. Rather, defining realistic goals and measuring progress over time will help teams more effectively achieve long-term sustainability targets. Refer to the additional information sections and supplements where provided for further guidance on implementation of WSG.
Status of This Document
This is a
preview
Do not attempt to implement this version of the specification. Do not
reference this version as authoritative in any way.
Instead, see
https://w3c.github.io/sustainableweb-wsg/ for the Editor's draft.
This section describes the status of this
document at the time of its publication. A list of current W3C
publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found
in the
W3C standards and drafts index.
This document has been reviewed by Interest Group members and interested parties. This is a draft document which may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than a work in progress. The Interest Group's role in publishing is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment.
By publishing these guidelines, the Interest Group does not expect that the work produced in this specification will affect the work undertaken by other W3C sustainability, accessibility, or performance groups. The Interest Group will continue to track these Working, Interest, and Community Groups as appropriate.
To provide feedback regarding this specification, the preferred method is using GitHub. It is free to create a GitHub account to file issues. A list of issues filed as well as archives of previous mailing list public-sustainableweb@w3.org (archive) discussions are publicly available. There is currently no preliminary interoperability or implementation report, however one of the key tasks of this Interest Group is to examine the potential for better models for digital sustainability that can feed into tooling (and thus into large studies of implementations) that can be reported upon and fed back into guidance for the Web Sustainability Guidelines.
Group Note Drafts are not endorsed by
W3C nor its Members.
This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other
documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other
than a work in progress.
The
W3C Patent
Policy
does not carry any licensing requirements or commitments on this
document.
The Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) promote good sustainability best practices based on the latest evidence and research.
WSG apply to applications, websites, and other Internet-related products and services.
The guidelines feature Success Criteria you MUST comply with, and provide additional information and other deliverables that can help with decision-making and implementation.
Digital sustainability is a complex topic, the guidance and metrics may change over time, and other considerations (such as non-digital factors) and impacts beyond carbon should be accounted for.
1.1 Background on WSG
Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) define how to make web products and services more sustainable for people and the planet. Web sustainability addresses more than just environmental issues [VARIABLES]; intersectional issues such as accessibility, privacy, and security can impact the sustainability of a project. We have an Summary of Web Sustainability if you would like to learn more about the subject. The Interest Group considers that WSG incrementally advances web sustainability in numerous areas, but underscores that not all environmental improvements are met by these guidelines, as sustainability is an emerging field and research gaps may exist in certain areas. These guidelines may make digital products and services more performant, usable, and improve other metrics for end-users as a by-product of being sustainable. WSG may also be helpful to comply with existing and upcoming worldwide regulatory frameworks, reporting schemes, and compliance requirements (laws and policies).
Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) were developed in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world. It does so, intending to provide a shared strategy for web sustainability that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally. WSG is designed to apply broadly to different existing web technologies now and in the future and to be testable with a combination of automated testing and human evaluation.
While content within WSG has been categorized for ease of readability, considering sustainability impacts beyond a field of interest is critical to increase awareness and collective action. Guidelines and success criteria matter, not prescribed labels. Certain tasks may be suited to a different/multiple role(s) depending upon whom or how the task of compliance is being approached.
Web sustainability depends not only on sustainable products and services but also on sustainable web browsers and other user agents. Examples include the performance of rendering and the accurate measuring of energy use through developer tooling. Authoring tools also have an important role in web sustainability, by ensuring performant code, reducing waste, and serving the results in the most sustainable way possible.
Coverage should not be restricted to what falls within the digital sector. While for this specification, we primarily focus on Internet-related technologies and the people and businesses that use them, sustainability concerns exist beyond the scope of this work, and as such, the impacts of these differing areas of concern should be addressed when meeting targets, reporting, and complying with relevant legislation.
Note
The WSG was originally developed under the guidance of the Sustainable Web Design Community Group. W3C community groups act as incubator hubs where ideas for new technologies and standards can be discussed without formal constraints.
From April 2022, with the help of over 100 subject matter experts from around the globe, the group created the first draft, and subsequently, through GitHub and regular meetings continued work over another year to progress the WSG and its deliverables to a level of maturity where the group and its work were ready to become a part of the W3C family in October 2024.
1.2 WSG layers of guidance
The individuals and organizations that use WSG vary widely. To meet the varying needs of this audience, several layers of guidance are provided, including overarching guidelines, success criteria, and additional information.
Guidelines: The foundation of WSG is comprised of guidelines. These guidelines provide the overarching goals that implementers should work toward to make products and services more sustainable. The guidelines provide the framework and overall objectives to help implementers understand the success criteria against which they are testable, and to implement better digital solutions.
Success Criteria: For each guideline, success criteria are provided as achievable statements to fulfill. Impact ratings, where available are also included to assist with decision making. Links to supporting resources are also provided.
Additional Information: These guidelines come with examples, where possible, to showcase how a success criteria within a guideline could be addressed. Tags are also provided in order to help individuals and tooling identify the relationships that occur between our material and particular groups.
All of these layers of guidance (guidelines, success criteria, and additional information) work together to guide how to make content more sustainable. Implementers are encouraged to view and apply all layers that they are able to, to make their project as sustainable as it can become.
While great care has been taken to make these guidelines as well-rounded and feature-complete as possible, there will likely be additional tasks implementers can perform to improve sustainability that this specification has failed to address.
Note
This specification offers interactivity. You can filter and see only the success criteria that apply to your interests/choices by selecting the filter button in the Table of Contents of the WSG. Your choices will reveal themselves upon selecting from the categories and checkboxes.
Most of the filters align to content you will find within the specification such as machine testability, GRI within Addtional Information (material, energy, water, and emission levels) and tags (considerations and categories), however, for standards, those listed and mentioned within relationships note specifications and other bodies work, cross-referenced within our resources document.
1.3 Measurability
The Web Sustainability Guidelines take the role of data and measurement seriously. All success criteria are evidence and best-practice backed, where possible through materials available in the resources document.
Alongside supporting evidence, the Interest Group will offer a JSON API that integrates live sustainability impact scores within this specification. Methods of calculating impact alongside details of the scope of measurability, limitations, and labels used to showcase scores will be available once the Task Force concludes their work. Available scores will be visible alongside success criteria and be updated by the Interest Group as appropriate.
Editor's note
WSG provides a crude reporting metric for reporting and compliance purposes based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). An open source Jupyter Notebook was created. As an input, it takes a spreadsheet containing all the guidelines and (using low, medium, or high) their indicators of impact on the reduction of server resource usage, network transfer, and end-user device usage. Then it takes data from a GreenIT Report [FOOTPRINT] which estimates the environmental impact of the mentioned categories across material use, water use, energy use, and GHG emissions. It then combines these datasets and estimates the comparative impact of a given recommendation on different sections of GRI taxonomy.
Low
This will have a minimal impact within a particular category.
Medium
This will have an impact worthy of consideration within a particular category.
High
This will have a considerable impact within a particular category.
When the JSON API with more accurate scores weighted against the GRI is published, the existing reporting metrics will be deprecated and replaced. Until then, existing content may remain in the additional information.
1.4 Conformance
This section lists requirements for conformance to WSG. It also provides information about how to make optional conformance claims. Finally, it describes greenwashing and cautionary notes when claiming conformance to WSG.
1.4.1 Conformance requirements
WSG is robustly built so that it can be implemented over time, in a non-specific order, and each success criteria will provide some measurable sustainability benefit. As such, conformance is measured upon the implementation of each guideline (and all of its success criteria being met) across the whole project.
To declare conformance to an individual guideline, all of the success criteria of that guideline must be met. In cases where success criteria do not apply to a situation or cannot be applied, partial conformance should still be declared, but declaring of passing individual success criteria may be more suitable to showcase conformity.
Note
Total conformance is achieved by meeting every success criteria for every guideline within the specification. As a general policy, most products and services will not likely be able to satisfy all success criteria. This could be as a result of time commitments, or because certain guidelines and success criteria simply do not apply to your project. In these situations, it is not recommended that implementers prioritize conformance over other important features such as security updates. Pragmatism and progress over perfection should be considered paramount when implementing and conforming to these guidelines.
1.4.2 Conformance claims
Conformance claims are not required. Implementers can conform to WSG without making a claim. If a conformance claim is made, then the conformance claim must include the following information:
Conformance: A concise description of sustainability commitments and a list of the guidelines and/or success criteria adhered to.
Other: In addition to the required components of a conformance claim above, provide additional information to assist users, such as additional steps taken (beyond the specification) to improve sustainability or statistics (metrics) that show the effect of changes that have already been made.
Note
Recording conformance claims within a sustainability statement may be helpful as a method of proving that you are meeting sustainability reduction targets, such as for internal scope accounting or meeting regulatory requirements.
1.4.3 Greenwashing
In the field of sustainability, greenwashing (misappropriation or deliberately misinterpreting our work to appear greener than you are) is a very real threat. Within other fields of the tech industry, such as web accessibility, false claims can lead to harm to users. In sustainability, harm can occur not only to users of a product or service but also to the wider ecosystem.
As such, with claims of conformance, we advise consumers and implementers to do the following:
Do not claim the Web Sustainability Guidelines as a mark of total sustainability, as there will always be gaps in this document's coverage.
Only make claims that you can provide evidence for and provide easy access to such evidence.
If you come across an organization or individual making claims regarding the WSG that appear unlikely or untrue, request that the claims be justified, rectified, or removed.
1.5 Relationships
Note
The body of work and landscape WSG builds on is constantly evolving. Some, typically referred to as "living" or "evergreen" standards, are subject to change frequently, and their impact on this publication's validity may be immediate. Others are updated less regularly, and the changes may not affect WSG publications until a new revision is issued.
In all cases, it is therefore prudent that implementors should regularly ensure that best practices have not changed due to new research or data and that any tooling they are using is frequently updated to account for compliance changes occurring as a result of more weighty evidence and guidance.
Relationship to AFNOR
Association Française de Normalisation is a Paris-based standards organization and a member body for France at the International Organization for Standardization. WSG directly references the AFNOR SPEC 2201 document, where guidelines may have relatable sustainability associations.
Relationship to ARCEP
The Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques, des Postes et de la Distribution de la Presse is the regulatory authority for telecommunications in France. Explicit comparison notes from guidelines that match (for compliance purposes), pointing to the General Policy Framework for the Ecodesign of Digital Services inside each WSG relevant guideline reference section, have been provided.
Relationship to AWS and Microsoft Azure WAF
Amazon and Microsoft Azure both provide a Well-Architected Framework offering a set of best practices that help protect digital products from consuming excessive resources. Where sustainability measures match the evidence and guidelines within the WSG, cross-links have been placed within guideline resources.
Relationship to Ethical Principles for Web Machine Learning
The W3C Ethical Principles for Web Machine Learning [webmachinelearning-ethics] discusses ethical issues associated with using Machine Learning and outlines considerations for web technologies that enable related use cases. As Artificial Intelligence and related technologies play a key role in digital sustainability, guidance relating to the subjects underpinned by this resource can be found throughout WSG.
Relationship to Ethical Web Principles
The W3C Ethical Web Principles sets out ethical principles that the W3C are working towards [ethical-web-principles]. Within the document is a principle (2.9) "The web is an environmentally sustainable platform", this aligns with the message with the WSG and what the guidelines strive to achieve.
Relationship to GR491
The Handbook of Sustainable Design of Digital Services (also known as GR491) is a series of sustainability best practices, published by the Institute for Sustainable IT. Like many other best practice guides, where matching compliance targets can be found to the WSG guidelines and success criteria, cross-links in the resources section have been provided.
Relationship to GreenIT
The GreenIT Best practice guidelines for web eco-design project is an open source French collaboration to provide meaningful goals to reduce a digital carbon footprint. As there are many parallels between WSG and the open source GreenIT project, guideline references note prior work from this project where it exists.
Relationship to GRI
The Global Reporting Initiative is an international, independent standards organization that helps organizations and individuals understand and communicate their sustainability impact. As denoted in Additional information, WSG provides metrics relating to GRI Standards to offer more targeted guidance for regulatory compliance goals. As our measurability improves, our results are subject to change.
Relationship to Human rights and technical standard-setting for the Web
The Human rights and technical standard-setting for the Web specification talks about the importance of being considerate of peoples human rights when writing specifications [HR-Spec]. While an unofficial document, it has a good ethical point and the subjects held in high importance (such as accessibility, privacy, and security) are considered throughout the development of WSG as having an ESG impact.
Relationship to Mitigating Browser Fingerprinting in Web Specifications
W3C Mitigating Browser Fingerprinting in Web Specifications defines types of fingerprinting and considers how to mitigate the related privacy risks [fingerprinting-guidance]. Because WSG contains several guidelines that can benefit sustainability but there may be considerations that fall into the scope of this field, the user impact is being carefully considered.
Relationship to OpQuast
OpQuast is a quality assurance provider that offers checklists for things such as Web quality assurance. While many of the improvements noted fall out of the sustainability scope, several directly relate to WSG success criteria or may impact guidelines as a secondary effect and should be considered. As this list is comprehensive, items deemed of consequence are noted in the resources section for relevant guidelines.
Relationship to Privacy Principles
W3C Privacy Principles provides definitions for privacy and related concepts that are applicable worldwide as well as a set of privacy principles that should guide the development of the web as a trustworthy platform [privacy-principles]. Because several WSG guidelines and success criteria have privacy considerations, also connecting into security considerations, impacts (either to people or the planet) are considered.
Relationship to SDGs
In 2015, the United Nations Member States, as a result of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development created the Sustainable Development Goals. While some of these goals are notably difficult to achieve by individual action, wherever digital/web technology interconnects with an explicit SDG target (and WSG could help shift towards compliance), the SDG target is noted within the references for each guideline.
Relationship to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provides recommendations for making web content more accessible [WCAG]. As WSG contains accessibility considerations due to the social impacts of sustainability overlapping with inclusive design/development, the impacts of affected parties have been taken into consideration whenever possible.
Relationship to Web Platform Design Principles
W3C Web Platform Design Principles contains a set of design principles to be used when designing web platform technologies [design-principles]. The WSG took it's recommendations into consideration to encourage and embed the methodology of using best practices when implementing sustainable solutions.
1.6 WSG supporting documents
The WSG document is designed to meet the needs of those who need a stable, referenceable technical specification. Other documents, called supporting documents, are based on this document and address other important purposes, including techniques regarding implementation strategies, guiding implementors through the guidelines that apply to their use case, and how WSG would be applied to new technologies. Supporting documents include:
Sustainable Tooling And Reporting (STAR) - Implementation advice for specification writers covering sustainability, alongside an evaluation methodology for testing sustainability within a workflow, and a collection of techniques, each with its own implementation test from our test suite.
Benefits for WSG - These guidelines come with a list of benefits across a range of different categories to justify the adoption of success criteria with clients, colleagues, and leadership.
Resources for WSG - A collection of citations, evidence-based research, academic papers, useful articles, implementations, and tools, all relating to digital sustainability, categorized by WSG Success Criteria.
Web Sustainability Laws and Policies - A guide to the laws, policies, directives, standards, and best practices that have coverage in the web sustainability sector.
Summary of Web Sustainability - A guide summarizing the subject of web sustainability and how the WSG can be useful in addressing this concern, including some useful educational resources to learn more.
WSG at a Glance - A brief overview of the WSG and its contents, including some highlights chosen by members of the Interest Group from the WSG.
Quick Reference for WSG - A quick reference to the WSG containing a print-friendly PDF checklist for ease of working through the guidelines.
See the Interest Groups GitHub repository for further supporting materials, including education resources relating to WSG. Additional resources covering topics such as tooling may also be noted on a case-by-case basis.
2. User Experience Design
If you are creating content and systems designed for users, then whether you know it or not, you are working in user experience (UX).
Good user experience reduces time and resources wasted on the journey. Poor user experience does the opposite, often also harming accessibility. Meanwhile, visual design choices and how we present information can have some of the biggest impacts on asset size, performance, and overall web sustainability.
Goals include:
Identify and regularly audit product, user, and user needs and the related impacts.
Improve ease of access with a clear information architecture.
Ensure assets are suitable and optimized for the lowest possible footprint.
Benefits include:
Good user experience amplifies the positive impact of your content.
Faster loading times reduce user drop-off. This can lead to, for example, more sign-ups and reduced cart abandonment in e-commerce.
Improved accessibility, compatibility, and usability boosts social inclusion and cohesion.
Sustainable user experience design best practices will often also improve performance and SEO.
Plain language summary of User Experience Design
Identify and address issues affecting your service, audience, users, users, non-users, and other affected parties.
Cultivate a lightweight experience based around well-written content, thoughtfully designed and optimized assets, and appropriate alternatives.
Guide users quickly to their objectives with an effective navigation system and layout using recognized patterns.
Create, apply, document, and share efficient design systems to reduce duplication.
Enable accessible interaction, using forms only when necessary.
Integrate regular audits and tests into your project release calendar.
2.1 Examine and disclose any external factors interacting with your project
Identify, track, and publicly disclose negative external factors.
Anticipate and identify existing or potential negative external factors. Disclose these in a publicly available resource, identifying areas where digital sustainability can be improved. Perform this audit at the start of your project and at regular intervals.
Establish a plan of action for affected parties who might be indirectly impacted by choices made with your project. Examples include neighbors accepting parcels or traffic jams due to deliveries. Other examples include the local health impacts of infrastructure emissions, or supply chain pressure.
Additional information
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Identify primary and secondary target users. Evaluate and define their needs through research, testing, or analytics. Ensure your users and affected communities are consistently and closely involved in the research and testing process.
Conduct internal and user research to identify whether a technical, material, or human constraint might require adaptations to reduce barriers or improve access to content.
Optimize all branding materials and assets approved during the ideation process in line with sustainability best practices prior to and on an ongoing basis after deployment. Where provided, brand guidelines must also detail the sustainability impact and best-practice deployment of materials and assets.
Use the participatory design approach to involve users within the iteration and design process. When conducting user testing, reach out to your community to help improve your product. Provide opportunities for users to apply their knowledge and experience to your product or service.
Consider planetary needs and the environmental boundaries during the ideation phase. This can include creating non-user, non-human (animal, planet) personas, or climate-specific user stories and sprints.
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Make access as simple and efficient as possible. Displaying the time required to complete an action, reducing choice, and ensuring users understand requirements at the start of a journey can improve user efficiency.
Use decorative design only when it enhances user experience. Remove unnecessary assets or those that do not enhance user experience or sustainability. Alternatively, make these optional and disabled by default.
Additional information
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Medium
GRI 302: Energy
Medium
GRI 303: Water
Medium
GRI 305: Emissions
Medium
Tags
Content, Patterns, Performance, Social Equity, UI, Usability
2.5 Ensure that navigation and wayfinding are well-structured
Provide good information architecture that signposts users, both human and machine, to what they need, so they can reach their destination as efficiently as possible.
Consider implementing an efficient and regularly updated sitemap for human users. While guidance beyond the navigation bar may be unnecessary for smaller projects, clearly structured human-readable sitemaps can improve accessibility and help users find their way through websites or other online content with naturally complex or legacy information architecture.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Medium
GRI 302: Energy
Low
GRI 303: Water
Medium
GRI 305: Emissions
Low
Tags
Accessibility, HTML, Marketing, UI, Usability
2.6 Design to assist and not to distract
Provide engagement that keeps the user's focus where it needs to be, avoiding anything that will either reduce efficiency or artificially prolong engagement.
Avoid deceptive design or unethical coding techniques that manipulate users into taking actions that are not in their best interest. Examples include anti-right click, copy prevention, requiring an account to purchase, etc.
Select, present, and label advertisements and sponsorships transparently and only implement where these provide economic value in an ethical way without diminishing user experience.
Focus on serving user intent through non-manipulative search and social media optimization. For example, do not misuse coding practices intended to support assistive technologies. This can include content with natural redundancy, or unhelpful or low-quality material designed only to manipulate search results.
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Create discoverable, well documented deliverables so that future users can find and make use of them without requiring assistance or expending unnecessary time and resources.
Use a formal design system when a project is large or has many contributors to improve performance, consistency, and sustainability. Choose a system based on web standards with reusable components and ensure your project only loads the components actually needed on the front end. Whether using a formal design system or not, always follow familiar design patterns and conventions.
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2.10 Provide clear, inclusive content with purpose
Provide content that meets the needs of the audience, ensuring it is formatted for readability and incorporating SEO for visibility, so they can reach their destination as efficiently as possible.
Write content using plain and inclusive language, at an appropriate reading level for your audience. Account for specific needs in relation to accessibility, native language, and internationalization.
Use appropriate formatting for digital media. Provide a clear document structure with consideration of visual hierarchy. Use headings, bulleted lists, line spacing, and highlights appropriately. Provide information with appropriate formatting for the action users need to take.
Additional information
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Medium
GRI 302: Energy
Low
GRI 303: Water
Medium
GRI 305: Emissions
Low
Tags
Accessibility, Content, Social Equity, UI, Usability
2.11 Optimize media for sustainability
Ensure all media - including audio, video, animation, images, and other novel formats, when deemed necessary in the design, are optimized, correctly sized and formatted, use lazy loading where appropriate, and managed effectively.
Resize, optimize, and compress all media. Provide media in appropriate sizes for different screen resolutions, user device capabilities, and user needs. Optimize and compress media appropriately. Provide media in compatible and appropriate formats. Avoid non-native embedded media players.
Incorporate lazy/deferred loading from the start: Consider which media elements are immediately required, and which would be better relegated to loading on specific user interaction. Load data-intensive media on the client side, including the media itself, behind a facade - a non-functional and static representational element.
Disable auto-play functionality on audio, video, and similar media formats. Give the user full agency over media interactions, including a choice of resolutions and formats, and the option to deactivate media. Inform users of the length, format, and data intensity of the media. Provide the option for data-intensive media to be disabled or provide low-fidelity alternatives.
Set up a media management and use policy. Include criteria for media compression, rendering impact optimization, file formats, data retention, review, and deletion.
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Progressively display an appropriate number of animations to avoid overburdening the user or negatively impacting device performance. This includes setting a maximum number of replays or iterations.
Limit the number and complexity of fonts downloaded. Design or subset fonts to omit unnecessary or unused stylistic variations, such as font weight or italics. Additionally design or subset to omit unused characters only where you and not the user or a third party control the input and output and can be sure only the confirmed Unicode range or character set will be used. When using a variable font, also restrict the supported axes and ranges to those required by your project whenever this reduces file size. Use the most performant file format available.
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Provide meaningful alternative text for all descriptive images that are non-decorative and support the user's understanding of the content, acting as a fallback if the images do not load.
Include closed captions and subtitles along with transcripts for videos. Provide localization as expected by your audience, including subtitles and sign language that meet the same standard.
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Remove unnecessary forms and reduce form content to the minimum necessary to meet the user needs while satisfying the organization's minimum requirements. Clearly communicate why a form is necessary, the value it provides, the number of steps required for completion, and what will be done with the collected data. Also disclose if the data will be shared with third parties.
Avoid using auto-completion or auto-suggest based on partial entry to conserve user bandwidth and reduce unnecessary server side requests. Support the use of helpful tooling, such as password managers, by not preventing autofill.
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Remove non-essential notifications. Justify and reduce email, text message (SMS), and other invasive or energy-intense notifications to what is necessary. Use notifications, such as alerts for new content, with care and restraint. Make sure the users understand and give informed consent.
Allow users to adjust their own notification and messaging settings. Ensure the options to unsubscribe, log out, and close an account are available and visible. Optional notifications must be off by default and only activated upon user opt in. The user should be able to change their contact details.
Additional information
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Medium
GRI 302: Energy
Low
GRI 303: Water
Medium
GRI 305: Emissions
Low
Example
<form>
<label for="choose">Would you prefer a banana or cherry? (required)</label>
<input id="choose" name="i-like" required />
<button>Submit</button>
</form>
Tags
JavaScript, Privacy, UI, Usability
2.17 Reduce the impact of downloadable and physical documents
Reduce the need for physical documents as much as possible by allowing the saving of well-labeled, optimized digital downloads and having a print style sheet.
Design your process to reduce the need for paper documents. Where the production of paper documents is essential, it should be designed to have the lowest impact possible. Include a CSS print style sheet and test it with different types of content. Encourage saving documents in digital formats over paper-based storage and archiving.
Display the document name, a summary, the size, and format prior to downloading. Allow users to choose the right format and language for their needs where possible. Avoid embedding documents directly; provide a link to download or view them within the browser instead.
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2.18 Involve users and contributors early in the project
Document the test process for new features with real users and validate the results, ensuring resources and training are provided to maintain the project's viability and minimize rework.
Outline processes used to prototype and test new features, product ideas, and user interface components. Test with real users who represent different perspectives and user constraints.
Additional information
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
High
GRI 302: Energy
High
GRI 303: Water
High
GRI 305: Emissions
High
Tags
Accessibility, Education, Governance, Ideation, Research, Social Equity, Strategy, UI, Usability
2.19 Audit and test for bugs or issues requiring resolution
Regularly audit for issues or problems, running tests at regular intervals in both simulated and real-world scenarios to ensure stability of the project.
Evaluate current user experience and check the codebase for bugs, identify performance issues, and account for accessibility, sustainability, or security problems at appropriate regular intervals, such as every month or quarter.
Identify and resolve bottlenecks or issues in the underlying code or infrastructure which could impact sustainability and performance to encourage a smooth, frictionless user journey. Consider both simulated and real-world metrics. Monitor performance across every release cycle using appropriate tooling or through research and auditing.
Collect only data required to provide a streamlined and effective user journey and comply with relevant accessibility and data protection legislation. Put policies in place to ensure strict adherence.
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Incorporate extensive usability testing, real user metrics, and user interviews into product cycles and routinely measure the impact of these tests for future releases. Validate whether released features meet internal goals and audience needs.
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Establish and maintain a compatibility policy which covers current and obsolete devices and software versions, listing the supported device brands, operating systems, and browsers (including versions). Update this regularly in line with new releases.
Avoid planned obsolescence. Strive to maintain compatibility for as long as possible and communicate clearly whether an update is evolutionary, as in large updates that can significantly reduce performance, or corrective, as in smaller updates that fix bugs or improve security.
Account for potential user constraints in various scenarios to ensure compatibility. Testing should cover weak, unstable, restricted, or slow connections, Virtual Private Network (VPN) use, operating system choice or version, browser, and the device age.
Success Criterion: Progressive web applications (PWAs)
Sustainable web design and development practices at the front-end and back-end often intersect with best practices, unlocking numerous benefits for people and the planet alike.
Front-end and back-end web development play a big role in creating a sustainable web. The result is code that runs more efficiently and transparently. Products are better able to meet user and user objectives, fast, while reducing the burden on hardware resources. Sustainable web development offers scaling and wide-reaching advantages.
Goals include:
Optimize code for sustainability impact targets.
Maximize product and service efficiency to reduce hardware load and requirements.
Add and adapt technical features to increase digital sustainability.
Benefits include:
Sustainable coding practices promote faster, more efficient code that is easier to scale and maintain.
Similarly, reducing client device entry requirements may allow you to expand your services to include those using less advanced client devices.
Lower abandonment rates thanks to optimized code on both the client and server-side means fewer errors, less downtime, and better user experience.
More efficient web services inevitably translate to better performance and technical SEO, boosting search engine visibility.
Plain language summary of Web Development
Optimize your project by eliminating unnecessary or duplicate code.
Develop your project to sustainably meet the needs of your audience.
Assess the necessity and quality of third-party services, dependencies, and first-party code.
Eliminate incorrect code, blocking events, form errors, security issues, and outdated code.
Design interfaces to be responsive, and adaptable to different devices and user preferences.
Include useful files expected by browsers, search engines, and other services.
Use the latest version of tools and software and use native features where able.
3.1 Set goals based on performance and energy impact
Account for the difference in energy intensity that different types of content may have on a project and set goals based on what you would like to achieve.
Set clear goals with performance and environmental impact in mind, then meet them. These could include, the number of requests or elements that must be rendered.
Consider differences in the energy intensity or testable impact across each component. For example, unstyled text is less computationally intensive to render than CSS, which in turn is less process-heavy than JavaScript, which is less resource-heavy than WebGL or 4K video.
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Remove unnecessary white space, comments, and other non-essential characters from code and data files to reduce file sizes and improve loading times. This applies to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, SVG, and other relevant file types.
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Low
GRI 302: Energy
Low
GRI 303: Water
Low
GRI 305: Emissions
Low
Example
!function(e,t){"use strict";"object"==typeof module&&"object"==typeof module.exports?module.exports=e.document?t(e,!0):function(e){if(!e.document)throw new Error("jQuery requires a window with a document");return t(e)}:t(e)}("undefined"!=typeof window?window:this,function(g,e){"use strict";var t=[],r=Object.getPrototypeOf,s=t.slice,v=t.flat?function(e){return t.flat.call(e)}:function(e){return t.concat.apply([],e)},u=t.push,i=t.indexOf
Tags
CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Performance
3.3 Modularize bandwidth-heavy components
Break down large components into smaller, self-contained pieces that can be requested only when required to save bandwidth.
Break down bandwidth-heavy components into smaller, modular segments that can be loaded only when required. This applies to both front-end and back-end code.
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Remove duplication and/or simplify and optimize your code for better performance, focusing on essential features so you have a cleaner, less redundant product and codebase.
Improve existing solutions rather than redeveloping and redesigning products from scratch, since the latter would duplicate the coding effort and maintenance burden for developers rather than reduce the learning burden for users.
3.6 Give third parties the same priority as first parties during assessment
Avoid using large third-party libraries and frameworks where possible, and where these must be used, self host, defer loading, allow the user to object, and provide alternatives.
Assess third-party content and/or services (including plugins, widgets, feeds, maps, carousels, tracking scripts, and more) as early as possible in the ideation or creation process. Use as few as possible, preferring lighter, less complex solutions to reduce the overall environmental impact, including Scope 3 emissions.
Use click-to-load triggers based on an import on interaction pattern to prevent automatic loading of third-party content and/or services (see above). Offer suitable alternatives to third-party use, for example, a link to a contact form as an alternative to a chat widget.
Host your content and assets, such as icons and widgets, directly on your own site rather than relying on third-party services to store, deliver, or embed those features.
Respect user preferences around the use of third-party products and services, similar to the implementation of cookie consent modals. Provide mechanisms to disable or refuse non-first-party features alongside explanations of their purpose unless it is possible to show these third-party features are critical for functionality.
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Use semantic markup free of optional or non-standard code, use the latest version of technical specifications, and only using custom solutions when native ones are insufficient.
Remove optional HTML elements, attribute quotes, and default attributes only when they do not negatively impact functionality, accessibility, or readability. Retain them when they enhance accessibility, maintain clarity without compromising on performance, or ensure consistent browser rendering.
Avoid using non-standard, deprecated, proprietary, or outdated formats and web standards. Only use such code where this is required to meet a documented customer need and if there is a justifiable benefit that cannot otherwise be met. Justifiable reasons could include compatibility with essential legacy systems and/or hardware, accessibility, or emissions reduction. Use polyfills only when necessary, and regularly audit code to see if they can be removed.
Prioritize the use of standard HTML elements and attributes. Only use custom elements or Web Components if you cannot use pre-existing elements or if you require them for the purposes of producing reusable design system components.
Include necessary meta tag references that are commonly recognized and used by user agents such as search engines. Follow recognized standards and vocabularies such as Friend of a Friend (FOAF) or RDFa.
Accommodate common user preferences, such as prefers-color-scheme, with corresponding CSS media queries. Consider accounting for additional user preferences, including monochrome, prefers-contrast, prefers-reduced-data, prefers-reduced-transparency, and prefers-reduced-motion preference queries where these will benefit your users. Use print and scripting media queries when they can improve sustainability.
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Use responsive and adaptive design techniques to ensure your project supports an wide range of devices and screen sizes, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktop computers, smart TVs, and other emerging platforms. Implement robust fallback strategies to ensure that the digital product or service will not fail if it encounters unsupported technologies.
Use progressive enhancement to enhance overall sustainability. This starts with baseline HTML, and increases the user experience without reliance on style and interaction to ensure a robust project.
Use carbon-aware design techniques to maximize your use of carbon-free energy. This is achieved by adapting the delivery of your project to current electricity availability and user grid load. This should include using situational design to reduce the codebase and disable non-essential functionality during high-intensity periods. Similarly, it should be possible to adapt the user interface to perform better with reduced hardware resources, where this measure can be taken to avoid scaling hardware resources and the resultant increase in emissions. It can also include designing algorithms that can automatically disable features based on set thresholds.
Support non-visual/indirect methods of interaction. This includes assistive technologies, voice agents, scanned input (QR, etc.), reader view (browser, application, or RSS), or connected devices.
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Integrate energy-relevant APIs - such as Battery Status, Compression Streams, Page Visibility, or Vibration - where these can reduce energy consumption.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
High
GRI 302: Energy
High
GRI 303: Water
High
GRI 305: Emissions
High
Example
const audio = document.querySelector("audio");
// Handle page visibility change:
// - If the page is hidden, pause the video
// - If the page is shown, play the video
document.addEventListener("visibilitychange", () => {
if (document.hidden) {
audio.pause();
} else {
audio.play();
}
});
Tags
Accessibility, JavaScript, Security
3.15 Ensure that your code is secure
Regularly check code for exploitable security issues that could affect both users and hosting infrastructure.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Medium
GRI 302: Energy
Medium
GRI 303: Water
Medium
GRI 305: Emissions
Medium
Tags
JavaScript, Privacy, Security, Social Equity
3.16 Use dependencies appropriately and ensure maintenance
Use libraries and frameworks only where necessary, when plain code or smaller packages are inappropriate for the use case, and they are kept up to date.
Prevent developers from downloading and installing libraries and frameworks to run client-side when they are not needed by checking for unused dependencies. Follow up by uninstalling those that are not needed.
Limit your use of libraries and frameworks to the genuinely necessary as this will reduce the amount of code that has to be downloaded and parsed by the browser. Consider whether you can use plain code instead. Check the package size and whether individual modules can be installed and imported individually or a more performant alternative can be used in its place, as opposed to the entire library.
Include favicon.ico, robots.txt, opensearch.xml, site.webmanifest, and sitemap.xml files by default. Also ensure that any similar files defined in future web standards or specifications are included.
Include beneficial files such as ads.txt, carbon.txt, humans.txt, security.txt. Also ensure that any similar files defined in future web standards or specifications are included.
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3.18 Use the most efficient solution for your service
Identify the project requirements, use the most efficient approach, aim for static over dynamic where possible, and consider the impact of extensions and components.
Identify the requirements and use this as a basis to help you select the most appropriate implementation for your project. A simpler technological implementation may use more human resources but could have a smaller footprint. A prebuilt solution may use more system resources and have a bigger emissions impact on render, but it could have a faster build time - meaning less carbon is emitted in development.
Use the most effective approach for your use case. Most of the time, coding from scratch will often provide the most performant results. Where an existing solution is present and is being actively maintained, this may be better optimized than what you can reasonably produce yourself. Favor native components and file systems over WYSIWYG editors - including visual page builders - or other heavy frameworks. Be mindful of the impact of third-party solutions.
Deliver static in place of dynamic content wherever possible. If you choose to use a code generation tool, then favor the most efficient tool available, such as Static Site Generators (SSGs). Content delivered by a dynamic CMS will involve much more server-side processing and uses bulkier libraries.
Carefully select and review plugins, extensions, and themes to maximize interoperability, accessibility, and performance. Audit these regularly over time to ensure continued compatibility.
Use the most appropriate programming language for the task. Many tools and programming languages are optimized for the performance of particular tasks. Applying the most appropriate tools to the problem can justify any time or effort involved in their adoption, especially if there is a reasonable user base, provided it does not impact the wellbeing of those involved or risk becoming cost-prohibitive.
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Optimize database queries, especially for frequently accessed information. If you need information that is stored in a database, and you require it or it is likely to be requested more than once in your code, the database should only be accessed once and the data stored locally for subsequent processing. Avoid relying on framework helpers that might defer filtering to later in the process.
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Even data has a home. Whether you are developing tools, processing data, maintaining online systems, operating websites or something else - conscious choices in this area can have an enormous impact.
Development operations teams and hosting providers work to ensure that infrastructure and systems meet requirements. Improving sustainability depends upon important decisions about where and how content, code, and data are stored and processed, and how end users interact with them.
Goals include:
Find sustainable providers for hosting, CDNs, and other third-party solutions.
Manage configurations for caching, compression, error handling, logging, and other features.
Handle tasks optimally with established processes that work.
Benefits include:
Reduced system resource requirements mean potential cost savings both in hardware and in energy use.
Efficient, sustainable hosting, infrastructure, and systems can create new marketing opportunities for your business: impressing green-minded or privacy-driven customers.
Gain economic benefits in the form of reduced hardware investment and/or operational expenses and lower maintenance costs thanks to better processes and appropriate provisioning of resources.
Plain language summary of Hosting, Infrastructure, and Systems
Select a green hosting provider with a scalable plan that meets your requirements, in the location where you need it.
Optimize your files, while ensuring appropriate file-related caching and error handling.
Automate processes and services where and when able.
Manage the processing and storage of data with care.
Monitor the sustainability impact of projects using metrics.
4.1 Choose a sustainable service provider
Ensure hosting and domain service providers support monitoring of resource use, use carbon-free electricity, and maintain and recycle equipment properly.
Monitor, request, and track key indicators to assess and transparently report the environmental impact of hosting and identify overconsumption. These include energy and water usage, even if you are using an "all-in-one" full service hosting provider. For people who set up and configure their hosting, but also hardware factors, such as CPU usage and memory usage. Similarly, track the allocation of servers and CPU cores to optimize resource efficiency. Consumers should monitor and providers should both calculate and transparently share, environmental impact metrics. Metrics should include Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE), and Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE).
Both hosting providers and consumers should maintain hardware to extend its lifespan as long as possible, use it efficiently at an appropriate capacity, verify it has up-to-date security patches, and ensure it has the necessary certifications with new purchases should be from reliable long-lifespan suppliers. Hosting providers should have a policy for extending hardware lifetime.
Use electricity with the lowest possible carbon intensity. Examine location-based emissions factors to calculate the carbon intensity of available electricity from the regional grid. Include the impact of on-site electricity generation, including backup generators, including storage systems in calculations.
Select a hosting provider that follows the GHG Protocol Scope 2 guidance on market-based carbon emissions accounting, seeking to match its remaining location-based emissions from electricity consumption with purchases of carbon-free electricity.
The impact of domain names is disclosed by registries and registrars, and registrants consider and (where possible) mitigate against these environmental issues.
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Use server-side caching where possible to reduce processing time and repeated database lookups or API calls. Configure caching via server settings to control file-type expiration using appropriate headers, such as Expires or Cache-Control. Cache dynamic page responses where possible to serve static versions to future users. Support client-side caching of frequently used static assets to minimize repeat server requests.
Ensure resources remain available and accessible even if the user is disconnected, using methods such as JavaScript Service Workers, Web Workers, and browser local storage features.
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Use server-side compression to reduce file sizes before delivery. Server-side compression settings and tools can be used to compress most commonly used file types, reducing energy consumption while minimizing load times, saving bandwidth, and improving overall performance.
Set up proper error handling and error pages to clearly inform users when something goes wrong, guide them back to useful content, and maintain a consistent, trustworthy experience.
Regularly audit to check for broken and outdated links. Update these as necessary and add redirects to guide users and search engines to the correct content to ensure efficient browsing and protect SEO value. Test all redirects to ensure they function as intended and avoid impactful redirect loops. Favor the most efficient redirection system for your platform.
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Minimize the number of active environments, including virtualized environments (such as containers). Audit codebases for unused branches and environments and remove them as appropriate.
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Automate recurring tasks, such as deployment, testing, and compilation in alignment with continuous integration and continuous delivery best practices.
Use automated scaling to adjust server capacity based on demand, ensuring efficient resource allocation during traffic spikes. Implement buffering and throttling to manage load and maintain performance without overprovisioning. Also use automation to promptly scale resources back down based on demand.
Restrict the activity of unwanted and unnecessary third-party crawlers, suspicious user agents, unwanted users, bots, and scrapers from accessing or downloading your content. Follow best practices, such as server access rules and security tools, while ensuring your content remains accessible to users, search engines and any helpful, welcome crawlers. Consider that scrapers may be used to inform and train large language models.
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Define the refresh frequency for the cache, local data, and page content based on user needs, balancing performance, data accuracy, and resource efficiency.
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Ensure backups of system and user data are secure and incremental to minimize storage use, reduce backup time, and protect against data loss or breaches.
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Low
GRI 302: Energy
Low
GRI 303: Water
Low
GRI 305: Emissions
Low
Tags
Hardware, Performance
4.9 Consider the impact and requirements of data processing
Account for the energy involved in data transfer, considering factors such as the protocol used, whether it is processed client- or server-side, and the environment used.
Use existing and supported carbon-aware computing methods to automate batching and scheduling according to real-time electrical grid carbon intensity data or shift workloads to lower-carbon regions to optimize sustainability while maintaining performance.
Choose communication protocols appropriate to user needs and the type of data being transferred. Avoid insecure options such as HTTP and FTP, and prioritize secure, efficient alternatives such as HTTPS and SSH. Use modern protocols to take advantage of newer sustainability features, while maintaining backward compatibility for older devices.
Consider using event-driven architecture and microservices when building products with state changes that do not require full page refreshes. Favor these where they offer a more energy-efficient alternative to traditional APIs based on performance, power, and processing factors. Choose the approach that reduces server workload and environmental impact.
Avoid redundant processing. When data processing is necessary, carefully compare the relative effects of client- versus server-side processing based on efficiency, performance, security, and sustainability metrics to make an informed decision.
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Low
GRI 302: Energy
Low
GRI 303: Water
Low
GRI 305: Emissions
Low
Tags
AI, JavaScript, Networking, Performance
4.10 Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) appropriately
Use CDNs where they bring a sustainability benefit, ensuring the provider itself is sustainable, has nodes local to an audience, and they are only used to serve static resources on them.
Deploy static content, assets, and other read-only resources via a Content Delivery Network (CDN) on a case-by-case basis, where judged to be beneficial. Carefully evaluate the environmental impact of any CDN service used, similar to a web hosting provider.
When serving an exclusively local audience, consider whether a CDN is required at all. Instead, select hosting providers with servers close to your target audience.
Avoid deploying dynamic or frequently changing resources to a CDN. Browser behaviors such as cache partitioning and cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) can limit performance gains, hinder caching and interaction, and attempting to override these can introduce security or privacy risks. This does not apply to static assets or JSON files, which are well suited to CDN delivery.
Perform data transformations, transfers, and processing between the layers of an application as close to the source as possible. This reduces unnecessary serialization overhead and avoids wasting resources.
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Select infrastructure that meets your requirements and customer agreements without over-provisioning. Favor standalone instances over multi-zone or distributed setups when requirements allow. Provision for average loads rather than peaks to ensure efficient resource use. Use autoscaling to handle fluctuations without underutilizing infrastructure.
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Low
GRI 302: Energy
Low
GRI 303: Water
Low
GRI 305: Emissions
Low
Tags
E-Waste, Hardware, Performance
4.12 Store data according to the needs of your users
Set expiration dates on data so it can be archived, made available offline, or removed when no longer used or required, with the remaining content tagged for future management.
Assign expiration and/or maximum retention dates to stored data where appropriate, treating excess data as a form of technical debt. Simultaneously observe any applicable minimum data retention periods. Make data cleanup an established organization-wide routine to prevent long-term data accumulation.
Implement a data classification and tagging policy to improve visibility, simplify management, and enable efficient removal of outdated or unused data.
Optimize log collection and storage by scheduling backups during low-activity hours, rotating logs appropriately, and using off-site, sustainable providers.
Make large, long-term assets available for easy download when in persistent use rather than needing to be accessed via the server each time they are used.
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Low
GRI 302: Energy
Low
GRI 303: Water
Low
GRI 305: Emissions
Low
Example
Accept-Encoding: zstd, gzip, br, deflate
Tags
Content, E-Waste, Hardware, Performance, Privacy
5. Business Strategy and Product Management
Designing websites and applications for better sustainability requires good business strategy and product management.
Anyone who owns, manages, or operates a website or application has significant capacity to improve the sustainability footprint of their organization. Business owners and other C-level executives are likely to be the main people responsible for the most impactful strategic decisions an organization can make. But all individuals working online can also make a big difference. Work in this area can improve the sustainability of various non-technical considerations that stretch beyond, or affect, a digital product or service.
Goals include:
Use your influence to ensure projects are developed more sustainably, at scale, across organizations of different sizes.
Raise awareness while publicly disclosing and reporting on your efforts.
Support your organization from within to ensure it and its staff are better able to meet relevant targets.
Benefits include:
Proper evaluation and reporting make it easier to meet compliance targets, comply with legislation, and avoid the risk of potential lawsuits.
Transparency about your sustainability impact can improve public perception of your company. This can boost customer loyalty and staff retention alike - reducing associated costs.
Clear policies and continuity planning build trust in your organization, while providing the opportunity to identify quantifiable risks and include relevant affected parties.
Appreciating users' time and resources can improve trust in a product or organization.
Plain language summary of Business Strategy and Product Management
Plan, create, and maintain policies and statements to cover sustainability initiatives.
Appoint someone to take responsibility for sustainability. Inform and train others.
Make efforts to understand your impact. Set goals and targets. Report, verify, and disclose your progress.
If a project is necessary, document its evolution and manage its lifespan.
Share benefits with your workers. Involve all relevant affected parties in the decision-making process.
Be ethical in your approach to sensitive materials, including data, or emerging technologies, such as AI.
Be an inclusive workplace.
Give back to good causes and support open-source initiatives
5.1 Have an ethical and sustainable product strategy
Produce policies and documents showcasing evidence, achievements, and onboarding underpinned by good governance.
Develop, publish and maintain key policies, such as a code of ethics, product guidelines, sustainability statements, and/or other documents that include language specific to digital products, services, policies, and programs. Make these publicly accessible and transparently versioned formats.
Provide evidence to demonstrate how digital sustainability policies, climate policies, and related practices are effectively implemented, monitored, and governed over time.
Advocate for and comply with responsible legislation that supports employment rights, transparency, and accountability related to sharing economic benefits, along with policies that impact your organization in relation to emerging technologies and/or digital sustainability.
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Assign a sustainability advocate with specific digital expertise and provide them with the resources, budget, tools, and time they need to achieve their stated goals. In some organizations, expanding this into a climate working group comprising motivated individuals can add further benefits.
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Produce, provide, and/or facilitate the delivery of onboarding materials and workshops to everyone connected to your project. This includes team members, contributors, colleagues, and organizational decision-makers - both within and external to the organization - to properly educate all regarding general and digital climate literacy, as well as your own sustainable technology policies.
Provide active and routine training where possible to develop, establish, and refresh skills relating to sustainability. This can be delivered as in-house training, courses, workshops, events, webinars, meetups, or other ongoing or on-demand methods that support your team in achieving sustainability objectives.
Encourage participants to reduce their environmental impact. Share climate and sustainable initiatives and ideas. Provide resources on sustainable design, best practices, and concepts to assist them.
Create and/or deliver dedicated training manuals, workshops, and materials to outline the sustainability policies and practices adopted and how to implement them. Manage and maintain these materials over time, adapting them as new policies and best practices arise.
Incentivize leadership, teams, and individuals to make progress toward the goals outlined in their training. Examples include dedicating time for sustainability-related activities, recognizing completion, and other benefits.
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Medium
GRI 302: Energy
Medium
GRI 303: Water
Medium
GRI 305: Emissions
Medium
Tags
Content, Education, Marketing, Reporting
5.5 Calculate the environmental impact
Calculate the environmental impact of the project and any tooling you use, and even that of a competitor, where possible, as this may be useful for comparison.
Calculate the environmental impact of your project compared to that of market alternatives to inform decision-making targets. Establish the need for your product by comparing the value offered by your project compared to these same alternatives.
Include the impact or estimated impact of any tooling or third-party solutions used at any stage in your pipeline. While not created by you, the emissions generated in production, maintenance, and use are also integral to your overall solution.
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Define and publish a clear set of sustainability goals. Publicly communicate how these goals can be met, including which performance metrics can be measured to help the organization and its various affected parties act more sustainably.
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Medium
GRI 302: Energy
Medium
GRI 303: Water
Medium
GRI 305: Emissions
Medium
Tags
Governance, KPIs
5.8 Support mandatory disclosures and reporting
Create policies and documents showing evidence of commitment towards impact progress, how this is achieved, and any applicable regulations you are meeting.
Create and publish policies and practices to disclose the social and environmental impacts of its products, programs, and services in line with existing reporting standards such as GRI, SASB, etc.
Publicly and transparently demonstrate commitment over time to following and adopting existing and/or emerging environmental standards and legislative policy that promotes mandatory emissions disclosures and reporting.
Clearly identify how environmental impact is being reduced, with careful avoidance of double accounting, greenwashing, data exclusion, or other misleading or manipulative techniques.
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Complete and operationalize a theory of change process with requisite documentation to identify the impact the organization aspires to achieve, how it will generate revenue, how it will create shared or added value from these activities, and how it will measure results based on desired outcomes. In the case of projects already underway, how these are generating revenue and actively tracking and measuring progress against desired outcomes.
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Ensure that products, prototypes, testing, and supporting processes are sufficiently resourced over time - including staffing and budgeting - so that teams can maintain capacity, address technical debt, refactor code, introduce new features, support long-term care and maintenance, and avoid project abandonment for customers, users, and all affected parties.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
High
GRI 302: Energy
High
GRI 303: Water
High
GRI 305: Emissions
High
Tags
Compatibility, Strategy
5.11 Implement continuous improvement procedures
Continuously improve projects through regular reviews and iteration, integrating technical debt and security management, determining if new or existing functionality is required.
Review deliverables and update frequency to ensure project teams have enough time to conduct user research, identify technical debt, and produce high-quality output as well as share what they learned.
Display a track record of continuous improvement (iteration) processes to analyze the digital product or service. Simultaneously address any potential consequences of ongoing experimentation, such as technical debt, product performance, and emissions. Analytics are limited to strictly necessary features that aid decision-making, encouraging user feedback, and comparing performance against business goals and user needs.
Justify and prioritize the retention of existing features, the creation of new functionality, and the decommissioning or elimination of unused functionality or low-traffic content throughout the product's life cycle on a case-by-case basis.
Provide corrective security and policy updates during the product or service life cycle. These should be distinguished from more extensive evolutionary updates.
Develop sustainable product and data strategies using appropriate training techniques. These should help your team build capacity and learn new skills to manage and maintain products and services over time.
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When a feature is added, updated, or removed to improve user experience, clear documentation of the changes is provided in a well structured, semantically versioned document.
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You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
High
GRI 302: Energy
High
GRI 303: Water
High
GRI 305: Emissions
High
Tags
AI, Content, Governance, Hardware, Ideation, Social Equity
5.15 Share economic benefits
Share benefits associated with being sustainably resilient with workers, incentivizing efforts, and advocating for those involved to meet sustainability goals.
Provide benefits to employees in accordance with resources, including, where relevant, healthcare, retirement planning, flex time, profit sharing, and more.
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Assign all affected parties, from users to project managers, an equitable role in the decision-making process. Ensure all internal involved parties have the necessary power and autonomy to make key decisions on the organization's behalf.
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Provide JEDI-related training materials and schedule regular workshops related to how this topic manifests itself in digital products and services, covering topics such as algorithmic bias, digital divide, employment, mis- and disinformation.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
High
GRI 302: Energy
High
GRI 303: Water
High
GRI 305: Emissions
High
Tags
Accessibility, Ideation, Social Equity, Strategy
5.18 Promote responsible data practices
Provide publicly accessible versions of documents required by law in a sustainable, easy-to-consume format, while also observing ethical data retention practices.
Maintain a publicly accessible privacy policy, terms and conditions, and any other documents as required by law in the jurisdictions in which the product or service operates. Adhere to the most restrictive data protection regulations, especially when providing services outside the organization's country. Provide documents in accessible formats and use clear, user-friendly language to ensure comprehension by all users. Avoid unnecessary jargon, technical language, and legalese. Support emerging legislation and implement best practices related to data privacy, sustainability, and responsible data management.
Demonstrate measurable progress over time in regard to respecting data privacy and ownership. Specify how data disposal and a user's "right to be forgotten" or opt-out will be handled, along with ownership rights. Also, provide the ability to download or export data they have contributed into a non-proprietary format.
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Archive and delete outdated or otherwise expired product content and data via automated expiration dates and scheduled product audits. Publish the archiving schedule, ensuring a lightweight version of the old searchable content is maintained for those that may require it.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Low
GRI 302: Energy
Low
GRI 303: Water
Low
GRI 305: Emissions
Low
Tags
Privacy, Security, Social Equity, Strategy
5.20 Promote and implement responsible emerging technology practices
Implement policies, training, and auditing practices for new or emerging technologies to ensure sustainability upon implementation, while accounting for associated legal issues.
Establish public-facing policies for emerging technologies. Ensure all such technologies and their datasets are ethically sourced, screened, validated, and implemented in a non-discriminatory, responsible manner.
Audit and account for any environmental considerations that may derive from the use of emerging technologies wishing to be promoted or implemented. This should include third-party choices, the expense in terms of waste or emissions of using the technology to create a desired result, and consequences that may arise from its deployment.
Ensure all automated tooling, scrapers, spiders, bots, artificial intelligence, and other forms of machine-assisted data gathering abides by requests to opt out at the host, server, or website level. Providers must declare themselves as non-human within the user-agent/HTTP header. Providers must also publish impact reports relating to their gathering activities.
Do not roll out post-quantum encryption for high-traffic services that do not need resilience against harvest now, decrypt later attacks, where attackers steal encrypted data, anticipating that future quantum computers will be powerful enough to break the encryption and make the data readable at a later date.
Additional information
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Engage in free or volunteer projects to help teams learn new tools and tactics, while also helping charities and non-profit organizations to build capacity.
Additional information
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Responsibly recycle or upcycle unwanted hardware or materials. Materials should be recovered, redeployment, and reused, where possible, or otherwise disposed of sustainably. Service providers should have a policy for responsible e-waste management.
Allow consumers to repair the consumables they purchase to the best of their ability, offering replacement components if possible at cost, and provide clear instructions to help resolve faults that occur.
Additional information
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Define and document clear digital sustainability budget criteria that covers impact from asset and resource creation to consumption. Communicate this to affected parties.
Use a performance budget to set a target maximum size of your digital product or service to monitor and reduce impact of data transfer, file type size, and more.
Define KPIs around engineering hours, development time, or sprints while keeping the health and well-being of your workers paramount. Sustainably optimize workflows to allow all tasks to be performed with care.
Create, regularly review, and occasionally test a plan of action to determine readiness in case of an incident and establish procedures to quickly recover from any incident.
You can find details about complying with [GRI] through the body behind the standard.
GRI 301: Materials
Low
GRI 302: Energy
Low
GRI 303: Water
Low
GRI 305: Emissions
Low
Tags
AI, Governance, Security, Strategy
A. Considerations
Guidelines within this specification which the Interest Group has identified possible implications for accessibility, privacy, or security, either by providing protections for end users or which are important for website providers to take in to consideration when implementing features designed to implement digital sustainability, are listed below. This list reflects the current understanding of the Interest Group but other guidelines may have implications that the Interest Group is not aware of at the time of publishing.
Individuals or organizations wishing to understand more about best practices relating to these objectives should read the relevant materials provided by W3C Working and Interest Groups in this area, as the result of good accessibility, privacy, and security, can benefit both people and the planet in measurable ways.
It is relevant to note that groups working on accessibility, privacy, and security may identify sustainability impacts within their work and may provide relevant guidance where appropriate on best practices to limit the scope of these concerns. Any such guidance should be considered as complementary to that provided within the WSG.
A.1 Accessibility
Guidelines within this specification that may relate to accessibility are:
Web accessibility (within the context of inclusive design) means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities (and those without) can use them, free of barriers.
Note
Types of accessibility barriers can include auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual. They can also be permanent, temporary, or situational (depending on the situation).
PPP
Planet, People, and Prosperity (PPP) is a set of principles that recommends considering each of these factors during the sustainability process.
This method of considering both people and the planet (alongside the needs of business) is known under other abbreviations with similar objectives such as Environmental, Social, and (corporate) Governance (ESG), which considers economic factors alongside; there is also Environment, Equity, and Economy (EEE) that follow a similar pattern.
Note
Such work is grounded within the three pillars of sustainability:
Planet: We prioritize the health of the environment, ecosystems, and the planet overall.
People: People should have access to resources, information, and opportunities necessary for their well-being.
Prosperity: Financial stability and equitable economic development—in this case, through the digital economy—ensures shared prosperity for the planet and its inhabitants.
Informative
For information purposes and not required for compliance.
Note
Content identified as "informative" or "non-normative" is never required for compliance.
Additional information about participation in the Sustainable Web Interest Group can be found within the GitHub repository of the Interest Group.
C.1 Participants active in the development of this document
Addison Phillips, Alexander Dawson, Alisa Bonsignore, Andrea Davanzo, Andrew Wright, Andy Blum, Anne Faubry, Arnaud Levy, Barry Pollard, Ben Clifford, Berwyn Powell, Brett Tackaberry, Brian Louis Ramirez, Chris Adams, Chris Augier, Chris Butterworth, Chris Needham, Chris Sater, Chris Wilson, Claire Thornewill, Daniel Appelquist, David Jeanmonod, Dennis Lemm, Diogo Abrantes Da Silva, Dom Robinson, Dominique Hazael-Massieux, Elika Etemad, Emily Trotter, Emma Horrell, Fershad Irani, Florian Rivoal, Francesco Fullone, François Burra, Gaël Duez, Hidde de Vries, Iain McClenaghan, Ian Jacobs, Ines Akrap, Ismael Velasco, Iulia Raluca Ionita, James Christie, Jeffrey Yasskin, Jennifer Strickland, Jens Oliver Meiert, Jim McCool, Josh Kim, Julien Wilhelm, Kazuhito Kidachi, Kenneth G. Franqueiro, Laurent Devernay Satyagraha, Len Dierickx, Leon Brocard, Łukasz Mastalerz, Marie Ototoi, Michelle Barker, Mike Gifford, Morgan Murrah, Nahuai Badiola, Neil Clark, Nick Doty, Nick Lewis, Nicola Bonotto, Nigel Megitt, Orie Steele, Owen Barton, Owen Rogers, Peter Krautzberger, Philippe Le Hégaret, Richard Ishida, Romuald Priol, Rose Newell, Rudolf Van Der Berg, Ryan Sholin, Sandy Dähnert, Sarah Zama, Shane Herath, Siddhesh Wagle, Simon Perdrisat, Sorca Duffy, Susannah Hill, Tantek Çelik, Thibaud Colas, Thorsten Jonas, Tim Frick, Tzviya Siegman, Youen Chéné, Yuna Orsini, Zoe Lopez-Latorre.
C.2 Other active participants, or contributors to supporting resources
Adam Newman, Aiste Rugeviciute, Alekh Gupta, Alicia Pritchett, Anthony Vallée-Dubois, Antoine Abélard, Asim Hussain, Bee Flaherty, Boris Schapira, Brian Sharpe, Carine Bournez, Christian H Brown, Christophe Clouzeau, Christos Bacharakis, Crystal Preston-Watson, Danielle Subject, Denis Didier, Edward Bender, Elise West, Eloisa Guerrero, Florence Maurice, Gerry McGovern, Greg McDonald, Hannah Smith, Ignacio Rondini, Ivano Malavolta, James Cannings, James Gallagher, Jan Henckens, Jean Rigotti, Jeroen Hulscher, Jon Gibbins, Juan Sotés, Julien Robitaille, Kate Mroczkowski, Katya Dreyer-Oren, Kimi Wei, Laila Tamani, Leah Goldfarb, Lenchi Danch, Loren Velasquez, Louise Towler, Luciene Bulhões Mattos, Luis Tiago, Manfred Jurgovsky, Marie Koesnodihardjo, Mark Butcher, Marketa Benisek, Mert Altinöz, Michelle Sanver, Moritz Guth, Nick Oliveira, Nick Sollecito, Nicolas Lanthemann, Nicholas Oliveira, Nicolas Oren, Oliver Winks, Patrick Hypscher, Pietro Jarre, Radu Micu, Rafael Lebre, Rebecca Brocton, Rick Butterfield, Rick Viscomi, Robin Whittleton, Samuel Pitoňák, Sandra Pallier, Sarven Capadisli, Sebastien Solere, Sylvain Tenier, Thierry Leboucq, Thomas Alexander Munch-Woolff, Tom Greenwood, Tom Howells, Torsten Beyer, Tristan Nitot, Yelle Lieder, Youcef Bekhti.
D. Changelog
Note that this changelog only identifies substantive changes since the final draft Community Group Report dated Dec 6, 2024.
[#192] Added an AI tag to the filter system for relevant content. @TzviyaSiegman
Updates:
[#97] & [#191] Updates to the introduction content and glossary definitions. @awright1979-alt, @hidde, @ines-akrap, @mgifford, @codewordcreative, @systemstree, @timfrick, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#192] Filter system is more visible within TOC and multiPage removed. @AlexDawsonUK, @kfranqueiro, @timfrick, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#192] TOC updates and query strings in URL update to reflect active filters. @AlexDawsonUK & @fershad
[#192] Intro clarifications provided RE standards references. @TzviyaSiegman
[#192] Update to relationships to include W3C WebML WG Ethical Principles spec. @TzviyaSiegman
[#194] Multiple updates to the Hosting section applied by Infrastructure Task Force. @AlexDawsonUK, @codewordcreative, @ryansholin & @susannah-hill, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#195] Benefits have moved into a dedicated supplement for further refining. @AlexDawsonUK, @codewordcreative, @fershad, @nigelmegitt
[#197] Multiple updates to the User Experience section applied by UX Task Force. @aphillips, @AlexDawsonUK, @awright1979-alt, @AnneFaubry, @ChrisButterworth, @fantasai, @ehorrell, @fershad, @hidde, @ines-akrap, @JamesChristie-SustainableUX, @jenstrickland, @kazuhito-kidachi, @mgifford, @airbr, @the-sustainabledev, @nigelmegitt, @r12a, @codewordcreative, Sarah Zama, @systemstree, @thorstenjonas, & @TzviyaSiegman
Fixes:
[#25] Per IG consensus, testability bubbles have been removed until it can be assured. @fershad, @hidde, & @jyasskin
[#192] Additional fixes for pubRules prior to draft note status. @AlexDawsonUK, @plehegar, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#192] Fixed some redundancy issues within the specification. @AlexDawsonUK
[#192] Updated editor roles and credit for @codewordcreative Q3-2025 contributions. @AlexDawsonUK, @ines-akrap, @mgifford, @timfrick, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#197] Overlapping success criteria have been merged, grouped, or removed. @AlexDawsonUK, @chrisn, @fullo, @hidde, @jyasskin, @kazuhito-kidachi, @mgifford, @airbr, @codewordcreative, @systemstree, @timfrick, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#197] Supplements list in WSG header have improved label descriptions. @AlexDawsonUK
[#200] Minor fix applied to Organize code arrangement. @fershad
[#201] Update applied to STAR materials on Lazy Loading. @airbr & @tunetheweb
Q3 2025 Release Notes (15th September 2025)
Additions:
[#122] Added dark mode capability to the specification and supplements. @AlexDawsonUK
Updates:
[#116] & [#127] Editorial improvements have been provided for the introduction. @AlexDawsonUK, @AnneFaubry, @codewordcreative, @fershad, & @ldevernay
[#125] Obsolete impact and effort ratings have been removed from the spec. @AlexDawsonUK
[#128] Updated content for the Summary supplement (formerly Intro). @AlexDawsonUK & @AnneFaubry
Fixes:
[#70] & [#117] Global editorial improvements and bug fixes have been applied to the WSG. @AlexDawsonUK, @codewordcreative, @jenstrickland, @mrchrisadams, & @ryansholin
[#79] & [#119] Intents have been updated, shortened, and turned into guideline subheadings. @airbr, @AlexDawsonUK, Alisa Bonsignore, @andreadavanzo, @codewordcreative, Sarah Zama, @susannah-hill & @TzviyaSiegman
[#89] & [#90] Structure of the crossover links has been improved for accessibility. @jenstrickland, @pkra, @TzviyaSiegman
[#90] Attribution for authors now conforms to pubRules with acknowledgements link. @AlexDawsonUK & @TzviyaSiegman
[#93], [#102], & [#104] Editorial improvements have been provided for the web dev success criteria. @airbr, @AlexDawsonUK, @codewordcreative, @fershad, @hidde, @ryansholin, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#100] Editorial improvements have been provided for the category introductions. @AlexDawsonUK, @awright1979-alt, @codewordcreative, @fershad, @hidde, @ines-akrap, @jenstrickland, @ryansholin, @susannah-hill, @timfrick, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#101] Editorial improvements have been provided for the UX success criteria. @AlexDawsonUK, @awright1979-alt, @ChrisButterworth, @codewordcreative, @fershad, @jenstrickland, Sarah Zama, @systemstree, @the-sustainabledev, @thorstenjonas, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#105] Editorial improvements have been provided for the hosting success criteria. @AlexDawsonUK, @codewordcreative, @fershad, @susannah-hill, @ryansholin, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#107] Editorial improvements have been provided for the business success criteria. @AlexDawsonUK, @codewordcreative, @fershad, @timfrick, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#108] Editorial improvements have been provided for the UX benefits. @awright1979-alt, @codewordcreative, @jenstrickland, Sarah Zama, @thorstenjonas, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#109] Editorial improvements have been provided for the web dev benefits. @codewordcreative, @ryansholin, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#110] Editorial improvements have been provided for the hosting benefits. @codewordcreative, @susannah-hill, @ryansholin, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#112] & [#118] Broken links and redirects have been resolved or removed. @AlexDawsonUK & @ldevernay
[#113] Editorial improvements have been provided for the business benefits. @codewordcreative, @timfrick, & @TzviyaSiegman
[#114], [#125], & [#132] Editorial improvements have been provided for the examples. @AlexDawsonUK, @codewordcreative, @the-sustainabledev, & @timfrick
[#118] & [#125] Broken links and redirects have been resolved or removed. @AlexDawsonUK
[#120] Resolved an issue around language use of normative in supporting documents. @frivoal, @hidde, @tantek
[#121] & [#122] Alignment with W3C Principle Notes, Manual of Style, and QA Framework. @AlexDawsonUK, @codewordcreative, & @hidde
[#122] Aligned all documents with mandatory pubRules requirements. @AlexDawsonUK
[#125] Fixed a minor bug related to the print style sheet. @AlexDawsonUK
Q2 2025 Release Notes (30th June 2025)
Additions:
[#6] New resources supplement that will serve as the repository for sustainability links. @AlexDawsonUK