Environmental Policy and Sustainability

Digital SEO's commitment to a Sustainable Future.

In Digital SEO we have designed and developed this website paying close attention to sustainability and environment. The environment is the surroundings that affect or condition the lives of people or society in their lives. The environment influences the life of human beings in the present and future generations. We believe that a balance between economic growth and environmental sustainability can be achieved. You can check the CO2 emissions of our website:

How much CO2 do you generate by surfing the Internet?

It is estimated that per hour the activity within the internet around the planet generates between 25 to 30 thousand tons of CO2 per hour. CO2 is generated within the data storage centers, which consume electricity 24 hours a day, every day of the year, this because it must maintain the operation of the storage disks, therefore the more is stored, the more electricity is consumed.

The weight of a website is directly related to the amount of CO2 emitted when visiting it. To catch you up, you should know that the Internet is powered by factories that release CO2 into the atmosphere, much more than you can imagine.

The Internet emits more greenhouse gases than the aviation industry. Specifically, 5% of global CO2 emissions are due to the use and maintenance of the Internet, which translates into more than 800 million tons of CO2.

The digital sector consumes about 7% of total electricity, exceeding even the emissions of the aviation industry.

According to Pesquisa Javeriana, the scientific publication of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, the average CO2 produced by visiting a web page is 1.76 grams, which generates in a year a page with 10,000 visits, about 211 kg of carbon dioxide.

A stored e-mail message generates between 1 and 10 grams of CO2 per day, and if it contains a photo or attachment it can reach 50 grams of CO2 , and only 10% of newsletter messages are opened. In addition, an average user receives 2,850 unwanted e-mails each year from subscriptions, which are responsible for 28.5 kg of CO2.

Other studies, such as that of the WebSiteToolTester portal, which reviews more than 200 home pages among the most visited websites in the world, finds that the most polluting websites are those of YouTube, Google, Zoom and Amazon, but Netflix and Twitter also stand out.

According to the study, YouTube generates around 702,000 tons of CO2 per year, while Google emits more than 267,000 tons and Zoom, 114,757 tons of CO2.

The WebSiteToolTester report also states that social networks leave the largest environmental footprint, followed by e-commerce and search engines.

This figure will be on the rise due to increasing digitalization, online work, ecommerce and the expansion of artificial intelligence, new applications and the further development of Blockchain with the rise of cryptocurrencies.

Sustainable web

So that this website does not contribute to climate change, we do our best to make the content load very fast. In order that your search and the use of this website requires less electricity. We do our bit to maintain our planet:

Developing our activities in an environmentally friendly manner, ensuring the protection and conservation of the environment.
Using resources efficiently and making efficient use of energy.
Encouraging waste reduction and recycling.
We reduce the use of paper and encourage the use of recycled paper and black and white printing with environmentally friendly inks.
When we replace any component of a computer, electronic device, toner or printer inks, we always deliver the component to a Clean Point for its correct recycling.
Training, informing and sensitizing our personnel on the environmental implications of our activities.

Actions we carry out on our website Digitalseo.coop

Energy source

We use a specialized hosting located in Spain with evolving technology to host our websites fast, secure and stable.

Amount of information

The average weight of a web is suffering an annual increase of 10-15%. We adjust the size of our website and segment all content so that the page you are visiting is just what you are looking for. This way we manage to reduce our carbon footprint a little more, while you are visiting us. So we apply several techniques to reduce the carbon footprint:

Images for a more sustainable web.

We use the right and necessary images.
We optimize all the photos on our websites: dimensions suitable for the devices, compressed images with new generation WebP formats, vector files.
We also use "Lazy-loading" so that your photos are not loaded until they are due to be displayed.

Videos for a more sustainable web.

We use just enough videos. We don't usually use videos as backgrounds.
We eliminated the auto-play to consume less energy.
We optimize the videos with the new formats and WebM codec.

Documents.

We compress documents and pdfs before uploading or sending them in order to consume less space and energy on our site.

Typographies or fonts for a more sustainable web.

We reduce the variations of typologies on our website.
We tried to load the updated WOFF2 format.
Also when it is not possible we use variable fonts or OpenType Font Variations, which are typefaces that with a single file can represent all possible weights between the minimum or lightest and the heaviest.
With this technique we manage to unify the typographic files to avoid overloading our websites, following the tips to have an optimal loading speed.

Source code for a more sustainable web.

We mimic CSS and Js content, using as little Javascript as possible in order to make the page less energy consuming.
We try to use the minimum amount of plugins or modules, implementing as much php and html code as possible.

Accessibility of information

We make it as easy as possible for you to find everything in a fast, simple and easy way. We use and implement an elaborate web architecture so that all the content is well structured. We take care of SEO and copywriting of all our content. We always apply the 3-click rule, to navigate and quickly find what you are looking for.

Technology for a more sustainable web

At Digital SEO, we are constantly updated with the latest versions of our CMS, PHP and MySQL/MariaDB. We use GZIP compression and server cache, so that the hosting works just enough and consumes less. In the end it all adds up, in Digital SEO we do our best to improve and adapt the technological evolution to a sustainable development, where the impact of the carbon footprint is as small as possible.

We must all fight together, not only to leave the planet as we found it, but to leave it better for future generations.

Do you want to be a standard bearer in the reduction of carbon dioxide or a hero of the environment, we leave you the following links so you can check the amount of CO2 emitted by a web page.

And finally, here are some tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint in the digital world:

Save in your browser's favorites those pages you visit the most instead of searching for them every time and seeing hundreds of results.
Disable automatic video playback in the browser and in your social network settings.
Download content and videos instead of streaming them.
Download the songs you love instead of listening online and play them from your phone or device.
Close unused tabs and windows in your browser.
Disable notifications that do not interest you, especially on your phone, so you also reduce CO2.
Uninstall applications that you do not use on your device.
Switch from video calls to calls, disable the camera and leave only audio enabled in virtual meetings.
Use low consumption navigators.
Use the dark mode with black backgrounds on desktop and web browser.
Change the synchronization frequency of the applications.
Unsubscribe from Newsletters you do not read.
Comment, post and update in moderation.
Reduce the size of the documents you send by e-mail to reduce the weight of the message.
Do not download attachments by default.
Delete emails that are no longer useful.
Delete your unnecessarily stored online data.
Reduce the brightness of your monitor or device.
Connect to the Internet via cable, as it consumes less energy than using the wifi connection.
Enable strict protection against tracking or VPN. Data tracking services use a lot of information.
Use your smartphone or other device for much longer before buying a new one.
Recycle or reuse digital devices. If there is a fault, find out if it can be fixed and the cost involved.
Consume digital services on smaller devices.
Make use of the power optimization function of your smartphone, TV or laptop and close the applications you are not using.
Recharge the battery of your devices with renewable energy sources.
Avoid buying more devices than you have time to use and donate the ones you no longer use.
Buy your devices from companies that have targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Use responsible search engines such as Ecosia, which donates 80% or more of its profits to non-profit organizations that focus on reforestation.
Use ICT services that help reduce CO2 emissions.
Contract 100% renewable electricity, whenever possible.