Reduce CO2 Emissions of Your Own Website

We had the great opportunity to speak with Torsten Beyer, author and expert on "Sustainable Websites".

Torsten has been active in this field for several years, with publications in renowned journals and most recently with the release of his book, "Sustainable Websites". We are delighted to have him for an interview.

Hello Torsten, could you introduce yourself briefly.
My name is Torsten Beyer and I am a qualified chemist. In 1998, I founded Dr. Beyer Internet Consulting to combine my passion for the internet with chemistry. Designing and optimising websites for loading speed and search engine rankings has been a central part of our services from the beginning. Without this specialised knowledge, the establishment and success of our ad-supported online laboratory magazine Analytik NEWS would have been impossible in competition with well-funded publishers. I have remained loyal to chemistry to this day and use the site to test sustainable optimizations and their effectiveness. This year, we have expanded our portfolio to include sustainability audits for websites. We assist companies in optimizing existing sites and strategically planning new, more sustainable sites. Additionally, we generate CO₂ footprints of websites, including metrics to document the current status and evaluate optimization measures.

Do you think hosting in Germany is sensible or rather problematic due to climate change, and do we need to look for alternatives in Northern Europe in the long term?
It's not possible to make a blanket statement. Currently, hosting in the Rhine-Main area is focused due to the internet node in Frankfurt, which is problematic due to water scarcity, warmer climate, and limited availability of green energy locally.
In the north and south, some hosts produce or locally source renewable energy. Overall, we need stronger environmental regulations for new buildings and transparency in the use of the "Green Hosted" label. Buying climate certificates (origin certificates) for example in Scandinavia is qualitatively different from using renewable energies on-site.

There are four points where electricity is consumed, causing CO₂ emissions to access websites. Can you briefly introduce these and which one is the most relevant?
In addition to data centres, the entire network infrastructure, all internet-enabled devices, and the entire hardware sector including recycling must be considered. All common tools calculate CO₂ emissions based on the so-called "Sustainable Web Design Models". They rely on the transmitted data volume for the homepage and simplified assumptions about the electricity mix. However, the accuracy of these values is limited, as a precise determination of the transmitted data volume and correct balancing can only be achieved through the evaluation of server log files.