Our website is eco-designed

 

We are aware of digital technology’s impact on the environment. That’s why we have decided to apply a continuous improvement approach to our practices in order to make our website less energy-intensive and more eco-responsible. 

What is digital eco-design? This approach is designed to reduce the environmental impact of a digital medium, in this case our website, throughout its life cycle, i.e. from its design through to its final use.

What is the current consumption of our website?

Key Figures

  • C
    EcoIndex grade*
  • 1,6
    grams of CO2 emitted*
  • 2,5
    cl of water*

*Average per page - Measurement carried out on EcoIndex on 24/06/2024

Compared to the old version of our website in 2022, on average across all pages of the website, we have managed to reduce by:

  • -40% the CO2 emitted
  • -40% the water consumption
  • -63% the size of the DOM
  • -81% the number of requests
  • move from an E to a C grade

Levers

We have made the design of our website less energy-intensive by optimising a number of levers. What’s more, we can continue to optimise it by complying with certain criteria. 

  • Reduced energy consumption of the pages 

By considering a number of factors during the design of our website, we were able to reduce the environmental impact of the pages, e.g. the number of queries, the bandwidth used and the complexity of the domain (DOM), which  
helps to reduce its energy consumption when used. We have achieved this result by activating 
a number of levers: 

  • Fewer images and videos
  • Optimised weight of images and videos (use of the SVG format, compression)
  • Use of web colours
  • Reduced number of icons/thumbnails, replaced by glyphs when possible
  • Limited number of fonts
  • Removal of animations when not relevant

Each of these features optimises the site’s environmental impact and the users navigate it. In fact, reducing these elements also reduces the loading time for pages, resulting in a smoother browsing experience. 

  • Hosting

Our website is hosted by Alwaysdata, a host compliant with strict eco-responsibility criteria: use of ecological devices and equipment that ensure a low-level energy policy and that allow the consumption of processes to be measured. 

In addition, Alwaysdata develops daily internal actions to monitor its low-carbon policy, such as partnerships mindful of the environment (with eco-responsible suppliers and manufacturers), limits on travel, and investment in low-carbon initiatives. 

  • Relevant content

A website's eco-design also entails the relevance of the content shared on it. We endeavour to comply with this criterion by removing elements (text or graphics) that are no longer relevant, such as obsolete or out-of-date information, or that do not provide any real additional information.

An image, for example, should provide the user with additional or complementary information to the textual content. That's why, as part of our continuous improvement process, we have decided to remove the photos associated with our references and publications, as they were deemed to be of no real relevance to the user's understanding.

By managing content in this way, we limit the weight of our website and rid the user of needless elements for an improved browsing experience. 

  • Accessibility

Eco-design is often associated with digital accessibility, which consists in making content, services and digital media comprehensible and usable by all users, no matter their disability. 

For optimal accessibility, we have considered the contrast between colours used, the size of fonts, and the use of alternative media formats for the visually impaired (such as descriptions of photos). We also use dedicated, optimised code so that the site can be used by all. 

Our website was eco-designed by Digital.Green.