For some years now, there have been more and more approaches and efforts to measure the emissions of websites. To do this, it is necessary to consider where energy consumption takes place in the first place.
Where is the electricity consumed?
When a website is called up, first of all the terminal on which the page is displayed consumes electricity. Further demand arises in the transmission networks and in the data centers during the operation of servers.The electricity mix used globally includes fossil, nuclear and renewable energy sources and emits an estimated 475 grams of carbon emissions per kilowatt hour.
Page weight: the weight of a web page
Other required variables for a calculation are the „weight“ of a website and the number of views.An average webpage weighs 2080 KB, a responsive, i.e. optimized for mobile devices page weighs about 1885 KB. (httparchive.org)
This includes, for example, the HTML document, images, videos, but also fonts, scripts and other media. The energy consumption per loaded data volume depends, among other things, on the location of the visitor and the web server of the visited page, we use a statistically determined average value of 1.8 kWH per GB of data. (On Global Electricity Usage of Communication Technology: Trends to 2030)
From these values (depending on the current energy infrastructure and the spread and use of sustainable energy), the amount of 1.76 grams of carbon emissions per call of a single page can be calculated.
If we take into account, for example, the usual amount of 10,000 visitors per month, we come to 211.11 kg of carbon emissions annually just for a single domain.
That is more than the carbon emissions of an airplane flying from Frankfurt to Munich.
A detailed analysis of carbon emissions during data transmission on the Internet is also available, for example, on the pages of the International Energy Agency in this report.
There is potential!
This example quickly shows how the enormous power consumption of the world wide web comes together.Greentelligent.Websites® are more resource-efficient and consume less energy through targeted optimization. Average carbon emissions are reduced and the site contributes to a lower climate impact.