Video platforms such as YouTube and Netflix, social networks such as Twitter and online retailers such as Amazon are among the most polluting websites, as their use results in the highest CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, according to a study by the WebSiteToolTester portal.
The analysis, which reviewed more than 200 home pages of the world's most visited websites, indicates that the pollution is due to the high demand for electricity from the servers on which the Internet portals depend.
The websites that produce the most carbon per year and affect the environment
To calculate the annual carbon gambling data mexico footprint of the different websites, WebSiteToolTester used the annual traffic figure and the CO2 generated by each visit to the home page. This allowed them to calculate the annual emissions and observe that some websites performed better than others.
As you can see in detail, in this image.
The most polluting websites
With so many users and the wealth of data on its content, Netflix is estimated to generate around 24.9 billion grams of carbon dioxide a year, just from website visits. With a huge range of series on offer, and many of us glued to our screens during lockdown, Netflix's servers have been working harder than ever. And the worrying thing is that the more people stream series, the more carbon dioxide will be emitted.
However, it is another entertainment website, YouTube, that takes the cake in emissions. With millions of videos hosted, live broadcasts, music, etc., it is estimated that it generates 702 billion grams of carbon dioxide per year. On the other hand, and despite being one of the websites that pollutes the least per visit, the Google search engine releases the impressive figure of 267 billion grams into the atmosphere, due to the huge number of people who use it every day.
But not everything is so bad. There are websites and companies in the digital market that are concerned about preserving the environment, such as Instagram, perhaps the most popular network at the moment.
Instagram's landing page is the cleanest on the internet
Instagram is the most environmentally friendly social network in the report presented by WebSiteToolTester. Thanks to its simple login to access the news section, the site only produces 0.01 grams of carbon each time a user logs into their account.
This simple design is very different from that used by competing networks. For example, Facebook's login page emits 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide per visit, while Twitter users generate a staggering 0.84 grams every time someone logs in and tweets. This tells you just how different the networks are, with Instagram clearly leading the way when it comes to environmental friendliness.
What can we, as marketing professionals, do? A lot!
Solving the carbon footprint problem of Internet use is not easy, given that industry, commerce, leisure and relationships today are increasingly based on the digital world, but its impact can be limited, for example by reducing the weight of images and optimizing them.
Designing lighter spaces on the Internet, where people click less to reach the purchase they are looking for, thinking sustainably as a marketing professional. Here we tell you how to make effective landing pages.
Another measure is to simplify the code of web pages. In fact, to create a site as close to energy neutral as possible, it is necessary to ensure that its content loads quickly and that the user experience is optimized, since the easier it is for users to find what they are looking for, the fewer pages they will need to load.
