Cambridge University Press & Assessment has launched a new Sustainable Web Design guide, in partnership with sustainable web experts Wholegrain Digital, to raise awareness and share best practice for reducing digital carbon emissions.  

“Printing activities are the largest contributor to our organisation's carbon footprint, at around 53 per cent,” said Julie Dennis, Chief Technology Officer at Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

“Converting all our print publishing to digital would be a massive contribution towards our committed target of carbon zero. As such, we are on a journey to transition from print to digital to help reduce our impact on the environment, however there are other factors to consider on our journey to digital, for example that digital also has a carbon footprint.”   

The Sustainable Web Guide has been developed to help ensure web projects are energy efficient and produce the least amount of carbon emissions possible in support of the organisation’s commitment to sustainability, which includes being carbon zero on all energy-related emissions by 2048. 

The guide includes sections on benchmarking, design, content, development and hosting, and refers to Cambridge’s sustainable design principles; ‘sustainable thinking’, ‘inclusive design’ and ‘carbon efficiency’. It is publicly available for anyone to access and use. 

The internet’s impact on the environment is often overlooked due to the terms used to describe it, such as ‘virtual’ and ‘the cloud’, which make it sound like something that doesn’t physically exist.

However, the internet is currently responsible for 1.4 per cent of global emissions and consumes 4 per cent of global electricity - gas emissions equal to, or greater than, the aviation industry - due to the physical infrastructure that spans the entire globe, including data centres, telecom networks and billions of connected devices like smartphones, laptops and smart TVs.