foreword by Rachel He

Make greener design choices for better experiences and a healthier planet.

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The internet may be digital, but it carries a very physical cost. From image files to colors to coding languages to servers, the choices we make in our web work can eat up electricity and spit out carbon—and as the internet grows, so does the cost to the environment.

But there’s hope: small, thoughtful changes in design and development can reduce the damage, while also making the web more resilient in the face of a changing climate. In Sustainable Web Design, Tom Greenwood offers a practical path to faster, more carbon-efficient websites that are not only better for the planet, but better for our users.

This book explores:

How to measure—and reduce—a website’s environmental impact
Designing low-carbon design choices around imagery, content, color, and more
Development processes that optimize for energy efficiency
Hosting and data transfer costs and considerations
What you need to sell sustainable practices in your team or organization

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The web is one of the most intriguing and powerful places—and it’s high time we took responsibility for its environmental impact. This book is an urgent manual for how to design the web more sustainably!

Cathleen Berger

Sustainability Steward at Mozilla

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People will be citing this book for years to come! Tom Greenwood manages to build a bridge between sustainability and web performance, and weaves them into a timely call-to-action for all pixelworkers. Whether your role is in product, design, engineering, or ops, Sustainable Web Design is a must-read.

Ron Bronson

Senior fellow at Baltic Pacific Institute for Design

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Full of practical examples, fascinating stories, and hard-won advice on making the case for greener digital work, Sustainable Web Design is now my go-to recommendation for web professionals who want to understand how they can adapt their practices to respond to the climate crisis.

Chris Adams

Codirector of The Green Web Foundation

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Tom Greenwood has written the missing manual for energy-efficient websites. This book can be read within a day, going just broad enough to highlight what’s at stake, why we should care, and what we can do about it. A practical and informative guide that inspires a much-needed conversation about sustainability in a power-hungry industry that takes energy for granted.

Kai Brach

Creator of Dense Discovery and founder of Offscreen

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About the Author

Tom Greenwood is the cofounder of the London agency Wholegrain Digital, a Certified B Corp, and a specialist in web performance and sustainability. Tom created the first online guide to sustainable product design in 2004 and won the UK government’s Business Leader of Tomorrow Award for his forward-thinking approach to business and sustainability. He is known for writing and speaking about how business, design, and web technology can be part of the solution to environmental issues and was lead author of the Sustainable Web Manifesto. He is also editor of the monthly green web newsletter, Curiously Green.

In his spare time, he has an unhealthy obsession with natural wellness, and enjoys running barefoot around the woods, jumping in the sea, and feasting on whole foods.