Net Zero Digital

This website walks the talk.

If the internet were a country, it would be the 4th largest polluter. An average website produces 1.76g of CO₂ per page view. We design and build digital properties — so this is our problem too. Here is what we did about it.

0
External font files loaded
System fonts only
0
Image files used anywhere on the site
CSS shapes & SVG only
36KB
Total site size, compressed
Avg site: 2.6MB+
1
Shared CSS file across all pages
No duplication, no framework

Design principles

The avoidance principle, applied.

When in doubt, avoid. If not possible to avoid, reduce. Only as a last option, compromise. Every design decision on this site was made through this lens.

01
No external requests
Every external resource — a font, an analytics script, a CDN-hosted library — is a server round-trip that consumes energy. We eliminated all of them.
  • System fonts only — no Google Fonts, no Typekit, no font subscriptions
  • No JavaScript frameworks — no React, no Vue, no jQuery
  • No analytics by default — no tracking scripts loading on every page
  • No social embeds — no embedded Twitter feeds, no Like buttons
02
Zero image files
Images are the single largest contributor to page weight. More colour in an image means higher file size. We replaced every image with CSS or inline SVG.
  • Logo mark — 12 lines of inline SVG, ~300 bytes
  • Person avatars — CSS shapes with initials, no photo files
  • Hero decoration — a CSS circle using border-radius, 3 rules
  • Icons — CSS shapes and clip-paths, no icon fonts or SVG files
03
Dark surfaces where possible
Every pixel is a tiny LED. Black shuts down pixels on OLED screens — the most common display type on mobile devices. We used dark backgrounds intentionally on high-visibility surfaces.
  • Hero right panel — near-black (#0E120E), pixels off
  • Contact section — dark background throughout
  • Footer — dark, not white
  • No heavy blue — blue consumes 25% more energy than red and green
04
Minimal page count, short journeys
Every step a user takes to find information consumes energy. Fewer pages means fewer loads. We used a long-scroll homepage to reduce intermediary pages and back-and-forth navigation.
  • One long scroll replaces 8 separate landing pages
  • Shared CSS — one stylesheet loaded once, not per-page
  • No carousels, no modals — content visible without interaction
  • Anchor links navigate within the page, not to new ones
05
Muted, efficient colour palette
More colour in an image means higher file size. We picked a muted palette of greens, near-blacks, and warm off-whites — no heavy blues, no gradients, no colour-heavy decorative backgrounds.
  • Primary: #1D6B4A (forest green), #0E120E (near-black)
  • No gradients anywhere on the site
  • No background images on any section
  • Flat surfaces only — depth through spacing, not effects
06
Green hosting
Where the site is hosted determines how green it is. We use Netlify — a CDN that serves files from servers closest to the user, reducing data travel distance, and is powered in significant part by renewable energy.
  • Netlify CDN — files served from edge nodes closest to each visitor
  • Static HTML — no server-side processing, no database calls on load
  • No autoplay media — video is the largest digital carbon category
  • Compressed files — 36KB total, vs 2.6MB industry average

Decision log

What we chose — and why.

Every design decision has a carbon consequence. Here are the specific choices we made and what they avoided.

Element Conventional approach Our choice What it avoids Impact
Typography Google Fonts (2 families, 4 weights) System serif + system sans — Georgia and -apple-system ~80KB font files + DNS lookup + server request on every page load High
Hero section Full-bleed background photo, 800KB+ WEBP Dark CSS background + inline SVG geometric shape Largest single-element saving — hero images are the #1 page weight contributor High
Person portraits 6–12 portrait photos, 50–100KB each CSS avatar with initials — background shapes, no files Up to 1.2MB of image data per page that loads portraits High
Partner logos 9+ PNG/SVG logo files Plain text in serif font, muted opacity Multiple image file requests; logos still clearly legible as text Medium
JavaScript Framework (React/Vue) + 3rd party libraries Vanilla JS, 12 lines total for tab and filter interactions 200–400KB of framework JS that executes on every page load High
Colours Blue-heavy palette with gradients Muted green palette, no blue UI elements, no gradients Blue pixels consume 25% more energy than red/green; gradients increase render complexity Medium
Navigation Multi-level dropdowns, animated mega-menu Single-level flat nav, no animation, no hover effects beyond colour DOM complexity, animation repaints, JS event listeners on every scroll Medium
Page structure 10–15 separate pages with shared components One long-scroll homepage + 6 focused supporting pages Fewer page loads per user session; less server round-trips; shorter average user journey High
Hosting Shared CMS hosting (WordPress, Webflow) Static HTML on Netlify CDN No server-side rendering on each request; no database queries; edge delivery reduces data travel distance High
Video Autoplay background video, embedded YouTube None. YouTube produces 10kg CO₂ per hour. No video on this site. Online video is responsible for nearly 1% of global emissions — the single largest digital category High

Our commitment

Aligned with the Sustainable Web Manifesto.

The Sustainable Web Manifesto sets out six principles for a greener internet. We have designed this site to meet all six. The internet's carbon footprint is roughly equal to the aviation industry — and every design decision is either part of the problem or part of the solution.

01
Clean
No fossil-fuel-powered hosting. Static files served from Netlify's CDN, which is partly renewable-powered and highly energy-efficient.
02
Efficient
36KB compressed. Zero images. Zero external fonts. Minimal JS. Every element earns its place — or is cut.
03
Open
Plain HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS. No proprietary frameworks, no locked-in platforms, no paywalled CMS.
04
Honest
This page exists to be transparent about our choices and their trade-offs. We are a prototype — some content is placeholder.
05
Regenerative
Minimalism is sustainable. Content audits planned on a regular cycle — old is bloat. Nothing stays that doesn't serve a purpose.
06
Resilient
Static HTML works without JavaScript enabled. Accessible to screen readers. Fast on slow connections. Works everywhere.

Measure your own site

Tools we used — and recommend.

CO₂ is not intuitive, but energy consumption is measurable. These tools let you audit any URL and see how it scores.

Website Carbon
websitecarbon.com ↗
Estimates grams of CO₂ produced per page view. Rates from A+ to F. The industry benchmark tool — run any URL and get an instant score.
Ecograder
ecograder.com ↗
Scores sites across performance, design, green hosting, and user experience. Provides specific recommendations alongside the rating.
Green Pixie
greenpixie.com ↗
Continuous monitoring of website carbon footprint over time — useful for tracking the impact of design changes across releases.
Website Emissions
websiteemissions.com ↗
Detailed breakdown of emissions by component — helps identify which specific elements are contributing most to page weight.
Dedalo.AI
dedalo.ai ↗
AI-powered sustainability audit for digital products. Provides design and code-level recommendations alongside a carbon score.
Cloud Provider Dashboards
AWS · Google Cloud · Azure
All three major cloud providers now offer carbon footprint dashboards within their billing consoles — useful if you run server infrastructure.

Our ongoing commitment

Good design is about skill, not scale.

High traffic impacts carbon emissions — and the job of a digital property is to generate high traffic. This means every ECube digital property we design or develop must strive for carbon-efficient design and code. It is not a nice-to-have. It is a design requirement.

For the next version of this site, we will run a full Website Carbon audit before launch, set a sustainability budget targeting under 0.5g CO₂ per page view, and publish the score publicly. We will also evaluate green hosting options for the live ecubeindia.in domain.