Sustainable Website Design

As marketers, we’ve all got used to tracking impressions, conversions and ROAS. But, there’s another metric boldly entering the conversation: your website’s environmental impact.

Every page view uses energy. Every oversized image, every unnecessary script, every auto-playing video contributes – however slightly – to carbon emissions (unless you’re working with a verifiable fully renewable/low carbon hosting provider). Multiply that by thousands of visitors and hundreds of pages, and suddenly your website isn’t as “immaterial” as it feels.

Plus, 70% of consumers still expect brands to reduce their environmental impact. And, 60% of business investors view climate risk as material to financial performance.

That’s why sustainable website design is starting to make a lot of business sense for many brands…

For brands that care about their climate impact and want to meet their client/investor expectations, building a sustainable website is an opportunity to:

• Reduce digital carbon footprint
  
• Improve performance and UX
  
• Lower hosting and infrastructure costs
  
• Strengthen brand trust with increasingly eco-aware audiences

In this guide, we’ll explore what sustainable design really means in a web context and how to measure your site’s impact. Plus, we’ll look at practical ways to design eco-friendly WordPress sites that are both beautiful and better for the planet.

What Is Sustainable Design?

In a broad sense, sustainable design is about creating products, services and systems that minimise negative impact on the environment and society while maximising long-term value.

In the context of sustainable website design, that translates to:

• Using fewer resources (data, processing power, energy)
  
• Extending the life of your website (so you’re not rebuilding it every 18 months)
  
• Making content easy to access and understand (less wasted time, fewer unnecessary page loads)
  
• Choosing infrastructure – like hosting and CDNs – that prioritise energy efficiency and renewable power
  

Sustainable design is not about making a “minimalist, boring” website or sacrificing creativity. It’s about intentionality: designing only what’s needed, in a way that performs efficiently, for as long as possible.

For marketers, that means asking a few key questions before you create or redesign:

• Does this page need all these scripts, pop-ups and embeds?
  
• Could a simpler layout load faster and still convert better?
  
• Are we choosing media formats that are appropriate and optimised?
  
• Are we constantly rebuilding, or designing a system that can evolve?
  

Sustainability and performance are, in many ways, the same conversation.

Related Read: WooCommerce x eCommerce Hosting: Why WooCommerce Needs Specialised Hosting

Why Sustainable Website Design Matters to Marketers and Their Teams

You don’t need to be a sustainability officer to see the value in sustainable website design. For marketers, more efficient websites load faster, create smoother user experiences and tend to perform better across SEO, UX and conversion metrics. 

Leaner site structures mean fewer pages, clearer journeys and less friction for users, whilst streamlined analytics allow teams to focus on meaningful behaviour rather than tracking unnecessary bloat. 

There’s also a clear brand benefit: a website that’s designed responsibly supports environmental or ESG messaging and helps build trust. This is key, particularly when audiences are increasingly sceptical of greenwashing (when companies deceptively market themselves or their products as more environmentally friendly…) 

On a practical level, efficient websites are easier to manage, cheaper to run and designed to last longer, reducing the need for constant rework. In short, how your website behaves is now just as important as what it says and it plays a growing role in your brand’s credibility.

How Websites Use Energy (The Simple Version)

Every time someone visits your website, their device sends a request to a server. That server fetches files (HTML, CSS, JS, images, video), transfers them across networks, and the user’s device processes and displays them.

Each of those steps uses electricity. The more data-intensive your site is (large images, heavy video, bloated code, complex tracking), the more energy is required per visit.

Sustainable website design aims to:

• Reduce the amount of data transferred
  
• Reduce the processing needed to render a page
  
• Use infrastructure powered (as much as possible) by renewable energy

When you optimise a website for sustainability, you’re also optimising it for the user. Fewer blockers. Faster loads. Clearer journeys.

Related Read: Performance & Speed Optimisation

Website Sustainability Checker: How to Measure Your Impact

Before you can improve anything, you need a baseline. A website sustainability checker helps estimate how “heavy” your pages are and the corresponding carbon impact per visit.

Popular tools you might explore include:

• Carbon calculators like Website Carbon’s and Website Emissions’ that estimate CO₂ per page view based on page weight and energy mix
  
• Performance tools like Google Lighthouse or WebPageTest for page size, requests and speed
  
• Green hosting badges or reports from your hosting provider
  

What you’re looking for:

• Page weight (KB/MB) – how much data is being transferred per page load
  
• Number of requests – lots of third-party scripts = more overhead
  
• Hosting location and energy source – not all data centres are equal
  
• Performance scores – especially on mobile

Even if the numbers are estimates, they give you a direction of travel. If your homepage is 6–8MB and takes 6 seconds to load on 4G, you can be pretty certain you’ve got both a sustainability and a UX problem…

Web Sustainability Guidelines: Principles to Design By

There’s no single universal rulebook yet, but several organisations and communities have started to develop web sustainability guidelines. Whilst each has its own angle, the main principles are remarkably aligned.

Here’s how to translate them into marketing and WordPress terms.

1. Design for efficiency, not excess

• Let intention guide every design decision. Each element should have a very clear reason for being there.
• Prioritise clarity and function over mere decoration. What “looks cool” might not always be as clear.
• Regularly audit your designs via heatmaps and user testing, and remove anything that doesn’t resonate with or serve your users.

2. Optimise media files

• Compress images appropriately (WebP or AVIF where possible). Use a tool like Imagify which we use at KIJO.
• Use responsive images (different sizes for different breakpoints)
• Replace heavy hero videos with short loops, stills, or well-crafted illustrations if they don’t add real value
• Avoid embedding third-party video players everywhere; use them strategically

3. Minimise code and third-party bloat

• Remove unused plugins, fonts and tracking scripts
• Combine and minify assets where appropriate
• Avoid loading scripts site-wide when only a few pages need them
• Use system or limited web fonts rather than five different typefaces

4. Choose greener infrastructure

• Use a host that can demonstrate energy-efficient or renewable-powered data centres
• Use CDNs to serve content closer to users
• Cache aggressively where appropriate
  

Related Read: How to Clear Cache on WordPress

5. Make content findable and accessible

The longer it takes for users to find what they need, the more pages they load and the more energy they use.

• Clear navigation
  
• Logical content hierarchy
  
• Search that actually works
  
• Accessible design (colour contrast, semantic markup, screen-reader-friendly structure)
  

Accessible websites are often more sustainable because they are less confusing and have fewer unnecessary clicks.

Sustainable Website Design in WordPress: Where to Start

If you’re working with WordPress, the good news is that sustainable website design is very achievable. It just requires some intention in how you set things up.

1. Start with a lean, well-coded theme or custom build

Avoid bloated theme marketplaces that come with dozens of preloaded features you’ll never use. They look flexible but add huge overhead.

A custom or lightweight theme gives you:

• Better performance
  
• Less unnecessary code
  
• More control over what loads where

2. Be ruthless with plugins

Plugins are powerful but also one of the biggest sources of bloat.

• Audit your existing plugins
  
• Remove anything unused or duplicated in function
  
• Prefer multi-purpose, reputable plugins over stacking lots of small ones
  
• Check the performance impact of any new plugin before rolling it out site-wide
  

3. Optimise images at upload

• Enforce size and format guidelines for your team
  
• Use an image optimisation plugin (like the aforementioned Imagify) or process
  
• Set max dimensions so images aren’t rendered at half size but loaded at full
  

4. Use caching and CDNs correctly

• Leverage page caching to reduce repeated processing
  
• Use a CDN to distribute assets globally
  
• Avoid overcomplicating your caching setup – simple, well-configured tools are better than complex stacks no one understands
  

5. Set up performance and sustainability monitoring

• Combine traditional performance tools with a website sustainability checker
  
• Review key templates regularly (home, product, blog, key landers)
  
• Include performance and sustainability as part of your QA process, not an afterthought

Sustainable Website Design Examples: What Does “Good” Look Like?

Whilst every brand has its own visual identity, sustainable websites often share common traits. These are:

• Clean, uncluttered layouts
  
• Thoughtful use of colour and typography
  
• Optimised imagery (no oversized hero assets with little purpose)
  
• Clear copy and information hierarchy
  
• Fast page loads on mobile
  
• Minimal reliance on heavy third-party scripts
  

You’ll often notice:

• Fewer competing CTAs
  
• No autoplay background video on every page
  
• Sensible animation, used sparingly
  
• Simple navigation and a clear journey

For marketers, these sites can be a reminder: clarity always converts better than complexity. Simplifying for sustainability will often improve performance too.

Sustainable Web Design Examples

Here are three sustainable web design examples:

Ecosia

Ecosia is often cited as one of the most recognisable examples of a sustainability-focused digital platform – and for good reason.

As a search engine with millions of users, Ecosia operates at a scale where digital efficiency genuinely matters. The company publicly states that it runs on renewable energy and invests heavily in climate initiatives, including tree planting and renewable infrastructure.

From a website sustainability perspective, Ecosia’s strength lies in:

• A performance-first approach that prioritises fast, efficient interactions
  
• Clear, minimal interfaces that avoid unnecessary visual or technical bloat
  
• Transparency around environmental impact and energy usage
  

Ecosia shows that even large digital products can operate more responsibly when sustainability is built into infrastructure, performance and purpose.

Radioville

Radioville, an digital audio and radio advertising agency, is frequently referenced in discussions around sustainable web design due to its extremely lightweight site build.

Its homepage is notably small in file size compared to the web average (it’s 783kb!), which significantly reduces data transfer and energy usage per visit.

Key sustainability strengths include:

• Minimal page weight
  A lean design dramatically lowers the carbon cost of each page load.
  
• No unnecessary third-party scripts
  Fewer external requests mean faster performance and reduced energy consumption.
  
• Clear, focused content
  The site prioritises clarity and usability over visual excess.
  

Radioville highlights an important point: you don’t need a large budget or complex tooling to build a more sustainable website. Simplicity, discipline and intention go a long way.

Materra

Materra is a climate-focused technology company, and its website reflects a product-led, performance-conscious approach rather than marketing excess.

What makes Materra a strong sustainable website design example is not overt “green” styling, but disciplined execution.

Key sustainability-aligned characteristics include:

• Lightweight, restrained layouts
  The site avoids heavy animation, autoplay video and unnecessary effects, keeping page weight and processing demands low.
  
• Clear, functional content hierarchy
  Information is presented logically and efficiently, reducing friction and unnecessary page navigation.
  
• Performance-led design choices
  The interface prioritises speed, legibility and clarity over visual embellishment – all of which reduce resource usage per visit.
  
• Longevity-focused design
  The site feels built to support a product over time rather than follow short-lived design trends, reducing the need for frequent rebuilds.
  

Materra is a good example of how sustainability in web design often looks like restraint, clarity and focus, rather than explicit environmental messaging.

How to Make Your Website More Sustainable: Practical Steps for Marketers

If you’re not ready for a full rebuild but want to move in the right direction, here’s where to begin.

Quick wins

• Compress and optimise your images
  
• Remove unused tracking scripts and pixels
  
• Switch off auto-play for videos where possible
  
• Reduce the number of fonts and weights used
  
• Remove outdated pages or content that no longer serves a purpose

Medium-term actions

• Audit your hosting provider and explore greener options
  
• Review your WordPress theme or build for bloat
  
• Simplify page templates (especially your homepage and core landing pages)
  
• Rework navigation to reduce unnecessary clicks

Longer-term strategy

• Treat sustainability as a design and technical requirement, not marketing garnish
  
• Include sustainability metrics in your redesign briefs
  
• Work with a web design agency or partner who understand performance, UX and sustainability as connected issues
  
• Build a flexible design system so you aren’t constantly rebuilding from scratch

Where a Website Redesign and Sustainability Overlap

If you’re already considering a site redesign, 2026 is the perfect moment to bake sustainable website design principles into the project:

• Define sustainability as a project goal alongside UX and conversion
  
• Set targets for page weight, performance and hosting
  
• Ask for a lean design system you can use for years, not just months
  
• Ensure your new WordPress setup is built with performance and longevity in mind

Remember, a sustainable redesign doesn’t just lower environmental impact. It usually results in:

• Faster websites
  
• Better SEO
  
• Stronger user experience
  
• Less technical debt
  
• Lower running costs over time

Final Thoughts: Sustainable Websites as a Strategic Advantage

Sustainable website design isn’t about perfection or policing every kilobyte. It’s about direction and intention – choosing to move towards leaner, faster, more thoughtful digital experiences.

For marketers, it’s a brand, performance and trust question. A website that loads quickly, is accessible, feels considered in its design, and is hosted and built responsibly will always support your brand better than one weighed down by unnecessary bloat.

If you’re planning a new WordPress build or a redesign and want to embed sustainability into the process (without sacrificing creativity or results) the KIJO team can help you create a site that’s both high-performing and future-conscious.

You don’t have to choose between beautiful design, strong marketing and a lighter digital footprint. With the right approach, they can (and should!) work together.

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