Web Sustainability and Environment
Let’s fight for the planet
At Insurance Agents we have designed and developed this website paying close attention to sustainability and the environment.
The environment is the environment that affects or conditions the lives of people or society in their lives. The environment influences the life of the human being in the present and in future generations.
We believe that a balance can be struck between economic growth and environmental sustainability.
You can check the CO2 emissions from our website:
How much CO2 do you generate surfing the internet
It is estimated that per hour the activity within the internet throughout 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 is due to the fact that the operation of the storage disks must be maintained, therefore the more it is stored, more electricity is consumed.
The weight of a web page is directly related to the amount of CO2 emitted when visiting it. To catch 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 around 7% of total electrical energy, even exceeding 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 a page with 10,000 visits generates around 211 kg in a year. of carbon dioxide.
A stored email message generates between 1 and 10 grams of CO2 per day, and if it contains a photo or an attached document it can reach 50 grams of CO2 and only 10% of newsletter messages are opened. Additionally, an average user receives 2,850 spam emails 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 biggest environmental footprint, followed by e-commerce and search engines.
This figure will increase due to the growing digitization, online work, ecommerce and the expansion of artificial intelligence, new applications and the further development of Blockchain with the rise of cryptocurrencies.
Sustainable website
So that this website does not contribute to climate change, we do everything possible for the content to load very quickly. In order that your search and use of this website needs less electricity.
We put our grain of sand to maintain our planet:
- Developing our activities in a way that respects the environment, ensuring the protection and conservation of the environment.
- Efficiently using resources and making efficient use of energy.
- Promoting the reduction of waste and its recycling.
- We reduce the use of paper and encourage the use of recycled paper and black and white printing with ecological inks.
- When we replace any component of a computer, electronic device, toner or printer ink, we always deliver the component to a Clean Point for proper recycling.
Training, informing and making our staff aware of the environmental implication of our activities.
Actions we carry out on our website
Power Source
We use a specialized hosting located in Spain with evolving technology to host our fast, secure and stable website, at Webcompany
Amount of information
The average weight of a website is experiencing 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 exactly what you are looking for. Thus managing to reduce the carbon footprint a little more, while you visit us.
So we apply several techniques to reduce the carbon footprint:
Images for a more sustainable web.
- We use the fair and necessary images.
- We optimize all the photographs on our websites: dimensions suitable for 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 to be viewed.
Videos for a more sustainable web.
- We use the fair and necessary videos. We don’t usually use videos as backgrounds.
- Removed auto-play to consume less energy.
- We optimize the videos with the new formats and WebM codec.
Source code for a more sustainable web.
- We modify the CSS and Js content, using as little Javascript as possible so that the page consumes less energy.
- We try to use as few plugins or modules as possible, implementing as much php and html code as possible.
Typefaces or fonts for a more sustainable web.
- We reduce font variations on our website.
- We try to load the updated WOFF2 format.
- Also when it is not possible, we use variable fonts or OpenType Font Variations, which are fonts 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 font files to avoid overloading our website, following the advice to have an optimal loading speed.
Information accessibility
- We make it as easy as possible for you to find everything quickly, simply and easily.
- We use and implement an elaborate web architecture so that all content is well structured.
- We take care of the SEO and copywriting of all our content.
- We always apply the 3-click rule to quickly navigate and find what you’re looking for.
Technology for a more sustainable web
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 right and consumes less.
In the end it all adds up, at Head Specialist we do everything possible to improve and adapt technological evolution to 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 champion in the reduction of carbon dioxide or an environmental hero? We leave you the following links so you can check the amount of CO2 that a web page emits.
- https://www.websitecarbon.com
- https://digitalbeacon.co/
- https://ecograder.com
- https://www.sustainablewebmanifesto.com/
- https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/green-web-check/
Related links:
Consulation on the usability and accessibility of Insurance Agents.
And finally, we leave you some tips to reduce the carbon footprint in the digital world:
- Download the songs you like the most instead of listening online and play them from your phone or device.
- Close the tabs you don’t use
- Uninstall apps you don’t use on your device.
- Use black backgrounds on desktop and internet browser.
- Cancel your subscription to Newsletters that you do not read.
- Reduce the size of the documents you send by email to reduce the weight of the message.
- Delete emails that are no longer useful.
- Delete your unnecessarily stored online data.
- Reduce the brightness of your monitor.
- Turn on strict tracking or VPN protection.
- Use the smartphone or any other device for much longer before buying a new one.
- Recycle or reuse digital devices.
- Consume digital services on smaller devices.
- Make use of the function to optimize energy use of your smartphones or laptop and close the applications that 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 goals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
- If uses responsible search engines like 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.