All you need to know about W3C Web Sustainability Guidelines

Every industry has a moment when a shift towards greater responsibility starts becoming an imperative rather than just a nice idea. The automotive industry is moving towards electric cars, enforced by production quotas. The fashion industry offers more sustainable alternatives to fast fashion and improves the supply chain standards transparency under consumer and governmental pressure, etc.

For the web industry, the moment could be approaching now, marked by the introduction of the Web Sustainability Guidelines. Developed by the W3C, these guidelines represent a significant leap toward integrating sustainability into digital products and services. Let’s see what is important to know about this game-changing document.

What are Web Sustainability Guidelines?

Web Sustainability Guidelines(WSG) are a set of best practices published by the W3C, The World Wide Web Consortium (https://www.w3.org/). It is a document, that formalizes existing best practices from the industry. The guidelines are designed to help digital product and service creators make their digital products more sustainable, prioritizing people and the planet.

Every industry has a moment when a shift towards greater responsibility starts becoming an imperative rather than just a nice idea…

..For the web industry, the moment could be approaching now, marked by the introduction of the Web Sustainability Guidelines.

Who created them?

The Web Sustainability Guidelines were developed by web sustainability experts, based on measurable, evidence-based research. The draft was edited by Tim Frick (from Mightybites, author of Designing for Sustainability), and Alexander Dawson.

Why should we care about the guidelines?

• Industry-wide impact -The WSG (Web Sustainability Guidelines) serve as a powerful signal within the industry, emphasizing the importance of sustainability.
• Guidance for Digital Professionals — They offer a practical guide for digital professionals on implementing sustainable practices and serve as a valuable resource for both creators and sustainability specialists in the digital field.
• First step in establishing Sustainability Standards — While not being an W3C standard yet, the web sustainability guidelines are a significant step towards making sustainability considerations a standard practice in the design and development of digital products.
• Alignment with wider reporting standards — the WSG are designed in alignment with GRI Standards (Global Reporting Initiative), so there is a great potential for their broader use in the sustainability domain. They can be used not only by the creators of digital products but also by sustainability consultants and departments.
• Catalyzing Industry Change — Acts as a catalyst for integrating environmental considerations in the tech sector.Encourages the adoption of eco-friendly strategies in the digital realm.

How can we use these guidelines?

The guidelines are divided into four sections: UX Design, Web Development, Infrastructure and Hosting Systems, and Business Strategy and Product Management. While interrelated, they are separated to facilitate implementation by different professionals and teams. So depending on your or your team's specialization, you can decide to learn about possible actions and success criteria in that particular domain.

These sections are not exhaustive but serve as prompts to consider and minimize impact at each step of the work process.

Will the web sustainability guidelines become obligatory?

Probably not soon, but I can imagine them being translated into some enforceable industry standard someday. In the EU, sustainability reporting has been mandatory for large companies since January 1, 2024. While it might take time to extend to smaller businesses, understanding and minimizing impacts is increasingly important. With climate change posing an undeniable threat, initiatives to reduce carbon emissions are becoming crucial across all industries.

What resources and tools are available to help you adopt these guidelines?

Each guideline, and there are 93 of them, comes not only with a checklist of actions but also with resources to learn more about the particular guideline. There are also examples being added to illustrate the implementation of best practices. There is also a growing body of literature, videos, and other resources to help us understand the impacts and implement solutions to minimize them.

I also created a simple platform, to make learning about the guidelines easier. On websustainabilityguidelines.com you can easily filter the guidelines by your area, and also more easily find those that can have a high impact while requiring low effort, ie. to find a low-hanging fruit of minimizing the impact of your website and make it simpler to start with the implementation wherever you are.

To conclude, the W3C Web Sustainability Guidelines are more than just guidelines; they are a practical blueprint for meaningful change. With actionable steps and accessible resources, they demystify the path toward sustainable web practices. For me they also can be synthesized into a powerful message, start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can — the sustainability journey begins always with a single step first.

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