Expert advice, industry insights and actionable tips to help you grow your e-commerce business.

News & Updates

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<h3 class="p1">It&rsquo;s official, Noughts &amp; Ones is now Certified B Corp&trade; Shopify agency!</h3>
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With an above average score for our sector, we are mega proud to be at the forefront of driving positive change within the e-commerce industry.
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As a certified B Corp&trade;, we are now part of a global community of companies that use business as a force for good. This means we&rsquo;re balancing purpose and profit, and continuously aiming for higher environmental and social standards.
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Although we have been living and breathing the values of B Corp since 2018, our formal certification has been in the works for over a year (the application process is rigorous) as the B Lab team scrutinises every part of a business across five key areas: Governance, Environment, Workers, Community and Customers. In order to certify, a company must achieve a minimum of 80 points in the B Impact Assessment and we are delighted to have achieved a score 103.4!
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Whilst we are taking some time to celebrate our achievement, we are also aware that this is just the start. The B Corp&trade; badge doesn&rsquo;t just mean we meet the highest environmental and social standards, it also commits us to keeping these high standards up for the long haul.
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<a href="https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/company/noughts-ones/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHECK OUT OUR B CORP PROFILE</a>
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A huge chunk of points came from our Conscious Development&trade; framework and how we&rsquo;ve been putting these principles into practice with the clients we work with. As a combination of e-commerce best practices and digital sustainability principles, we are working hard with our clients to ensure that the Shopify stores we deliver are:
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<ul>
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<h3>Design&mdash;conscious</h3>
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<h3>Code&mdash;conscious</h3>
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<h3>People&mdash;conscious</h3>
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<h3>Partner&mdash;conscious</h3>
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We have loads of plans in the works for how we can evolve our Conscious Development&trade; framework over the coming months / years by introducing new partners and service offerings.
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Thank you all for being a part of this remarkable journey. Together, we will continue to push for positive change, shaping a more sustainable and socially responsible e-commerce industry.

We are a Certified B Corp&trade;!

Explore the latest insights, trends, and stories on sustainable e-commerce and Shopify expertise. Stay informed with Noughts & Ones' blog.

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From new projects to ad-hoc development support, we offer a range of services to help you grow your Shopify store. We'd love to hear from you!&nbsp;

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Our B Corp&trade; journey so far

We've appointed a new Operations Director!

Sustainable e-commerce brands that are killing it right now

Noughts &amp; Ones join the Ocean Network

How to set yourself apart as a conscious e-commerce brand

Quick ways to reduce your personal digital carbon footprint

We've been named a UK Clutch Leader for the second year in a row!

An introduction to green hosting and green hosting providers

What Google Analytics 4 (GA4) means for your online Shopify store

What is greenwashing and how do I spot it?

Challenging the climate crisis at the Festival of Sustainable Business

Brain food for the development team at Shopify Unite 2022

How to find the right Shopify agency for your brand

How to Properly Test the Speed of your Shopify Store

How do different types of disabilities affect website users?

Is my Shopify website bad for the environment?

Meet the merchant: Maeving

The ultimate guide to low-impact web development

Winning at Black Friday for small e-commerce brands

SEO for Shopify: 8 Best Practices for eCommerce Success

The Benefits of Product Subscriptions for Shopify Stores

A deep dive into ethical and sustainable website design

Shopify Editions Winter 2024: What's new?

Shopify Editions Summer 24: an N&amp;O Perspective

Figma Config 2024

Industry Insights

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If you live in the western world and shop online, chances are, you&rsquo;ve heard of Black Friday. It falls the day after Thanksgiving (28 November this year) and pinpoints the start of the Christmas shopping season. It's believed to have existed in the US since the 1950s. These days, it&rsquo;s best known as a huge online discounting campaign run by Amazon but that doesn&rsquo;t mean smaller businesses like yours can&rsquo;t take advantage. In fact, with Cyber Monday following straight after, it can be a great opportunity to maximise those pre-Christmas sales whilst also showcasing all that your brand stands for.
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As the cost of living crisis bites, predictions are that sales will be slower this year but that doesn&rsquo;t mean there aren&rsquo;t gains to be made. In fact, despite forecasts for overall spending dropping, it&rsquo;s estimated that those looking to make purchases over the season will increase by 6% to <a href="https://www.finder.com/uk/black-friday-statistics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">39% of all Brits planning to make purchases across the sale season</a>.&nbsp;
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<h2>Why should you get involved?&nbsp;</h2>
 In 2021, Shopify reported that <a href="https://www.shopify.com/blog/bfcm-data" target="_blank" rel="noopener">47 million shoppers</a> made purchases through Shopify-powered stores across the Black Friday - Cyber Monday long weekend. This totalled a whopping $6.3billion in revenue. Whilst the biggest increases in sales are seen by the big brands, small businesses also see an increase in sales. Customers want to shop small where possible. According to <a href="https://www.activecampaign.com/about/newsroom/press-releases/small-business-appreciation-data-2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Active Campaign</a> &ldquo;30% of consumers said they want to support small businesses over big brands because they know they have more struggles and less resources&rdquo;. In essence, they want to support the smaller independents because they know that behind the brand are real people.
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If you&rsquo;re lucky enough to have marketing support built into your business, at this late stage your Black Friday campaign is likely to be planned and even started. If it isn&rsquo;t, don&rsquo;t panic. You&rsquo;re not too late if you act fast and take advantage of some uplift in sales.
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<h2>Here are our tips for making the most of the season</h2>
<h3> Tailor deals to your customers</h3>
Although shoppers associate Black Friday and Cyber Monday with massive discounts, it&rsquo;s not just about that. In fact, discounts aren&rsquo;t the only thing motivating buyers. According to Sangeetha Narasimhan &ndash; European Marketing Director for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ingenico.com/epayments" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ingenico ePayments</a> - in 2020 27% of UK consumers stated that rather than discounts, they would prefer other incentives such as unique products, loyalty and referral bonuses, extended returns or free next-day shipping.&rdquo;
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If you do decide to offer a hefty discount, why not use it as an opportunity to clear out older stock that&rsquo;s been taking up space? Money tied up in stock can cause cash-flow issues so it&rsquo;s a good idea to periodically look at ways to refresh.
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Don&rsquo;t have excess stock? Take a look at your Shopify analytics and work out which items have the largest profit margin. By offering deals on those specific items, you can maintain good profit margins whilst also encouraging additional purchases.
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<h3>Use social media to make a buzz&nbsp;</h3>
Unless you tell them you&rsquo;re doing something different, shoppers won&rsquo;t know to come and check out your deals. These days, it&rsquo;s all about video so whether you&rsquo;re on TikTok or Instagram, try putting together a reel (there are templates available if you&rsquo;re unsure where to start).
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Alternatively, why not go live and talk directly to your customers, or if that feels too daunting, record yourself and post later? This is a great way to create a dialogue with your customers and share your brand values directly. Tell them your plans for Black Friday Cyber Monday. Talk about what you do that&rsquo;s different, how you support the planet and why your products are the best.&nbsp;
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<h3>Email your customers</h3>
Like social media, email is a great way to alert your customers to any upcoming promotions you have planned. We love the marketing automation platform&nbsp;<a href="https://www.klaviyo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Klaviyo</a>. It allows you to easily set up and send emails and text messages to your customers. What&rsquo;s more, it has a simple <a href="https://www.klaviyo.com/ecommerce-integrations/shopify" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shopify integration</a> which means you can easily track customer spend and set up targeted sales funnels to send the right info to the right people. Clever!
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Even if you&rsquo;re new to email marketing, Klaviyo has simple templates and plenty of how-to support to get you started. Give it a whirl. You won&rsquo;t be alone. Right now, 65,000 Shopify businesses are using Klaviyo!&nbsp;

<h3>Be true to your values&nbsp;</h3>
Sure, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are about maximising sales but Black Friday for small ecommerce brands is an opportunity for so much more. You have the power to do something much cleverer and more impactful than your larger competitors.
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Have you heard of Green Friday, Blue Friday or Give Back Friday? These <a href="https://www.virtueimpact.com/post/blackfridayideas-standoutbygivingback" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Black Friday alternatives</a> are a great way to shout about all the great things you do as a people and planet-conscious brand. These alternative &lsquo;days&rsquo; focus on sustainable initiatives such as carbon offsetting, ocean conservation and tree planting. In reality, this means that instead of (or as well as) offering monetary discounts, brands choose to do something for their customers that benefits the planet.
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It&rsquo;s not just small brands doing this either. Each year, Armani&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.loreal.com/en/news/brands/blue-friday-armani/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Acqua for Life</a> campaign gives 30% from each purchase to clean drinking water initiatives across the world. Is there perhaps something you could do that links back to your own business? Selling organic cotton socks? How about donating a box full to your local homeless shelter?
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<a href="https://www.give-backfriday.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Give Back Friday</a> focuses on charity. You could consider either donating per sale on behalf of your customers or including messaging encouraging them to round up a purchase for charity. Another idea is to exchange a discount for an action. For example, as a clothing retailer you could offer a discount in return for donating old clothing to charity. &nbsp;
<h3>&nbsp; Go forth and conquer</h3>
Hopefully you&rsquo;ve found some useful tips here around Black Friday for small ecommerce brands. Having a well-built Shopify store which makes it easy for your customers to purchase, and smart marketing which echoes your brand values will put you in a positive position all year round.
If you&rsquo;re looking to upgrade your Shopify store, want to move onto Shopify from another platform or just want to discuss how we can help you grow your business, <a href="/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">get in touch for a chat</a>.

Events

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Earlier this month some of the team were at&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://unite.shopify.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Shopify Unite</a>. We enjoy getting out and about, learning from our peers and generally keeping up to date with trends in e-commerce so that we can deliver our clients the best, most up to date service. This is an important aspect of our business, we&rsquo;re always learning and stretching those brain cells!&nbsp;
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This annual developer-first event runs over two days and is packed with workshops and talks, given by senior developers, growth managers and engineers at Shopify. This year, they covered everything from headless storefronts to theme development, app building and checkout journeys.&nbsp;Here are some of my highlights.
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<h2>A bit of history for you</h2>
The event took place at the&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://www.tobaccodocklondon.com/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tobacco Dock</a> in London. Firstly, it&rsquo;s a hella cool space and secondly, it&rsquo;s one of London&rsquo;s most historic commerce sites (fitting for an e-commerce conference!). It was built in 1812 to process wine, furs, molasses and tobacco arriving from across the world on cargo ships.&nbsp;

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<h3>Workshop: Build a product page with Hydrogen</h3>
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<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://hydrogen.shopify.dev/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hydrogen</a>&nbsp;is Shopify&rsquo;s front-end web development tool which is useful when building a custom storefront. It&rsquo;s a react-based framework for headless storefronts and whilst this might not mean much to many people, as a developer working in this world, it makes perfect sense!
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<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://twitter.com/scottdixon" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Scott Dixon</a>&nbsp;(developer advocate at Shopify) ran the workshop and really knew his stuff. He showed us just how fast a product page can be built. The reason this is so useful is that it allows developers like me to spend more time on the custom (fun) parts with a lot of the basic work done for us. During the workshop we saw the build out of a product page and how fast and smoothly it can be done. I was really impressed and can definitely see a use for Hydrogen in the work we do.&nbsp;
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<h3>Talk: Building Powerful Checkout Customisations &amp; Checkout Extensibility</h3>
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Building stores is our core business so this talk, about customising checkouts, was really interesting.&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://twitter.com/lizkenyon07" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elizabeth Kenyon</a>&nbsp;(developer advocate at Shopify) talked about the core concepts behind their checkout UI extensions and navigation and how these can benefit Shopify Plus merchants.&nbsp;
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She talked about checkout functions such as BOGOF, volume discounts and gifting - all things we&rsquo;ve built for past clients. She also talked about customisations which are now easier for devs to work with, thanks to some changes to the code extensions they&rsquo;ve recently made available. Again, really useful stuff which should help us make our clients customer checkout experience both easier and more profitable!&nbsp;
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<h3>Workshop: Effective ways to improve your online store performance.</h3>
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Talking of profits, this guided workshop by <a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://twitter.com/wizardlyhel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Helen Lin</a>&nbsp;(staff front end developer at Shopify) was really interesting. We took a break from the dev-heavy stuff to look at how modern browser technology and recent shopify features can help improve storefront performance.&nbsp;
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We spent time looking at how code can be used to improve site speed and user experience. For example, simple things such as properly sizing images and deferring offscreen images with lazy load are good practice. They can make a real world difference. Ensuring our sites have the best performance scores is always a priority for us and most of those we work with, so it&rsquo;s always great to see what latest tips Shopify themselves recommend.
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<h3>Development done right&nbsp;</h3>
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Currently, we&rsquo;re a team of four developers. Each of us brings something different to the table. For example, Giulia leads on the delivery of custom Shopify projects and is our resident Recharge subscriptions expert. Justin and Paul tend to work on theme-led projects and Justin leads on accessibility with Paul working on our Growth Partnership clients.&nbsp;&nbsp;
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We focus on <a href="https://www.noughtsandones.com/conscious-development" target="_self">conscious coding</a>. Making it as efficient as possible in order to have minimal impact on the planet. We&rsquo;re constantly learning, looking for ways to shrink scripts, compress file sizes and set appropriate caching times (among other things) to make the stores we build as sustainable and performant as possible. Events like Shopify Unite are a great place to grow our knowledge and chat with like-minded developers!&nbsp;

Guides

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<h2>🏆 Awards, certifications and mentions</h2>
Awards aren't just about clout and prestige; they're a great way to help businesses identify who to work with.&nbsp;
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Some of the benefits of working with a certified, award-winning Shopify agency (like ours!) include:
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<ul>
<li>A clear indication of technical ability and expertise</li>
<li>The ability to easily verify creative potential</li>
<li>The potential for additional PR press and awards, at no more cost to your business</li>
<li>Awards generally attract the best talent to an agency</li>
</ul>

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A practice that goes hand-in-hand with sustainable website design, green' or low-impact web development is a method of building online digital experiences at the lowest possible cost to the environment.
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Typically low-impact web development is done by focusing on energy efficiency and partnering with sustainable service providers, but there are a whole host of techniques developers can utilise to help make their websites more environmentally friendly.
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How do we put this into practice at Noughts &amp; Ones? We've built a five-step framework called <a href="/conscious-development-framework" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Conscious Development&trade;</a> that guides everything we do, with a focus on crafting accessible Shopify websites that are always conscious of:
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<ul>
<li>Design - Reducing the environmental impact and carbon footprint of an e-commerce store, from the initial design right through to the live development.</li>
<li>Code - Core code that is as streamlined and efficient as possible in order to have minimal impact on the planet.</li>
<li>People - Crafting digital experiences that positively impact both the people that use them and the planet.</li>
<li>Partners - Carefully selecting sustainable partners, apps and software that we bring into your tech stack.</li>
<li>Content - Only including content that's absolutely necessary and ensuring that what is included is as efficient as possible.</li>
</ul>
<h2> 🖥 Our tips for low-impact web development</h2>
To help website developers reduce the environmental impact of the projects they work on, the team here at Noughts &amp; Ones have put together a list of our top tips for developing low-impact websites, including an introduction to W3C standards, the importance of page load speed, page weight budgets and much more.
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By following the best practices listed below, your next website development project is more likely to be faster, smaller, and better for the environment than you may have previously thought was possible!
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<h2>🗒 Follow W3C web standards</h2>
Low-impact web development is about more than just knowing the effect a website has on the environment. It's also about knowing the effect it has on those using it.
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<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/disability-and-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to the World Health Organisation</a>, up to 15% of the world's population (one billion people) live with some form of disability, and failing to consider the unique needs of these people when crafting digital experiences for your business means that you run the risk of losing both their trust and their custom entirely.
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This is even more true when looking at the links between websites that have been designed with accessibility in mind and Google's ranking algorithms. While accessibility itself isn't directly tied to a website's ranking potential, there are a few common accessible design techniques that are shared with a great search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy:
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<ul>
<li>Navigation - A well-designed and easy-to-follow navigation make it easier for users and page crawlers to explore and map out your website.</li>
<li>Page titles &amp; headings - Optimised page titles written for real people instead of bots not only tend to index better, but are easier for screen readers to pick up.</li>
<li>Sitemaps - Sitemaps provide a clear overview to a user of all pages on a website, alongside helping search engines find other pages on your site that are linked to far less commonly.</li>
<li>Anchor text - Providing context to hyperlinks throughout your website to both users and search engine crawlers.</li>
<li>Breadcrumbs - Allowing users to keep better track of their journey through a website, as well as giving search engine crawlers a better understanding of the structure of your site.</li>
<li>Alt text - Providing text-based alternatives that can be read by screen readers alongside giving search engines a clue to the visual content of images uploaded to the website.</li>
</ul>
 We believe that the internet should be a safe and accessible space for all. To help make this vision a reality, all the Shopify websites we develop adhere to a strict set of accessibility guidelines, including:
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Making sure that all text-to-background colours pass with at least a AA rating according to <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).</a></li>
<li>Ensuring all image content on our websites include alt-tags.</li>
<li>Providing a community-focused customer experience.</li>
<li>Developing screen reader-friendly content components for those who suffer from visual impairments.</li>
</ul>
<h2> 🏎 Improve page load speed</h2>
One of the most immediate ways to achieve low-impact web development is to focus on improving the overall load times of individual pages across the website.
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The less time a user spends loading a website, the faster they're able to achieve the goal they had for visiting the site in the first place. This reduces the energy they consume visiting the site and <a href="https://uxplanet.org/how-page-speed-affects-web-user-experience-83b6d6b1d7d7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">improves their overall user experience</a> too.
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There are real and measurable benefits to your business when you focus on improving page speed too. <a href="https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A 2018 Google study</a> determined that just a two-second longer wait for a web page to load increased the probability of a user abandoning their visit by 90%.
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<a href="https://www.portent.com/blog/analytics/research-site-speed-hurting-everyones-revenue.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Research by Portent in 2019</a> also supports these findings, showing a significant reduction in both goal and transaction conversation rates for pages taking longer than 2 seconds to load.
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By turning your attention to reducing page load times across your site, you're more likely to improve your website's conversion rate and generate more sales for your business. We build ultra-fast Shopify stores by shrinking scripts, compressing downloads, setting appropriate caching times, and combining files to ensure seamless user experiences for our clients.
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<h2>☁️ Utilise cloud hosting</h2>
Cloud hosting leverages a global network of interconnected servers in place of shared hosting or traditional, on-site hosting platforms. This approach results in more reliable server uptime and performance with increased backup and data recovery options thanks to shared liability across thousands of physical storage drives.
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Not only is cloud hosting faster and more reliable, it's often cheaper too, as businesses don't need to invest in on-site servers with expensive power and cooling requirements. Server space is also more effectively utilised on cloud hosting packages, helping to mitigate wasted storage, a problem often suffered by traditional hosting platforms.
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Alongside general speed and performance benefits, cloud hosting is often a much more environmentally-friendly way of managing and sharing online data, with <a href="https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/insights/strategy/green-behind-cloud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one 2020 study by Accenture</a> revealing that switching to cloud hosting can help reduce energy consumption by 65% and carbon emissions by up to 84%.
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<h2>🍪 Disable cookies, analytics &amp; tracking</h2>
While passive data collection can be an invaluable tool for businesses looking to learn more about their customers' behaviour and online browsing habits, user tracking and data collection can be responsible for a significant amount of data and energy use. One study by&nbsp;<a href="https://gerrymcgovern.com/calculating-the-pollution-cost-of-website-analytics-part-1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gerry McGovern</a> estimates that tracking platforms like Google Analytics produce almost 17 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. Plus, with website traffic increasing year-on-year, the total yearly emissions of user behaviour tracking is only set to get worse.
&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.mightybytes.com/blog/is-gdpr-good-for-the-environment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In an experiment conducted by USA Today</a>, it was found that stripping out all tracking codes and implementing GDPR compliance into a cloned version of the USA Today website resulted in a 90% saving in page weight and load times 1500% faster (from 45 seconds to just 3 seconds).
&nbsp;
While this might sound positive, the downside is that completely eliminating behaviour tracking means that businesses are less likely to be able to effectively engage with their audience, and more likely to increase their energy and financial spending on poorly-targeted, less successful campaigns.
&nbsp;
Instead, businesses with sustainability in mind should look for alternatives that enable them to strike a careful balance between the ability to track user behaviour while keeping their carbon emissions to a minimum.
&nbsp;
<h2>🏕 Cabin</h2>
<a href="https://withcabin.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cabin</a>, a carbon-conscious privacy-first analytics tool, is an ethical alternative to platforms like Google Analytics. It focuses on a faster, lighter and greener method of tracking user behaviour.
&nbsp;
The tool is fully compliant with all current data laws, includes no cookies or consent banners, and there is absolutely no sharing of data between third-party companies.
&nbsp;
To keep their environmental footprint to a minimum, Cabin is powered by a sustainable cloud infrastructure that runs on 100% renewable energy. What's more, with a file size 22 times smaller than Google Analytics and a load time that's twice as fast, far less energy is consumed by both businesses and their customers looking to integrate the service into their online storefront.
&nbsp;
<h2>💭 Plausible</h2>
Like Cabin,&nbsp;<a href="https://plausible.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Plausible</a> is an <a href="https://plausible.io/open-source-website-analytics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open-source</a> alternative to Google Analytics that provides website tracking in a privacy-first, lightweight package.
&nbsp;
Plausible promises completely autonomous data measurement that doesn't rely on tracking cookies or any personal data. Temporarily processed data is kept strictly within the European Union and no cross-site or cross-device tracking is used.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
With tracking scripts 45 times smaller than Google Analytics, Plausible estimates websites with 10,000 monthly visitors can save up to 4.5kg of CO2 emissions every year by switching to their platform.

<h2>⚖️ Consider a page weight budget</h2>
As the name suggests, a page weight budget refers to a self-specified limit of how large the total file size of each page on your website should be.Keeping it low can increase overall page speed and reduce the environmental impact of the average page on your website.
&nbsp;
There's no industry standard size and the specific limit is usually chosen by development teams. For example, we apply an overall page weight budget to all the Shopify stores we build, only including front-end features that have minimal impact on code.
&nbsp;
Our friends over at Wholegrain Digital have also shared their own <a href="https://www.wholegraindigital.com/blog/how-to-page-weight-budget/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">three-step guide</a> to determining the ideal page weight budget for your next website project:
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Benchmark - Test the total page size of competitors in the industry and aim to be at least 20% more efficient to ensure a faster load and better overall experience for your users.</li>
<li>Connection - If you're replacing an existing website that currently tracks user data, try and identify the worst connection of your target audience against <a href="https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">average expectations of load times</a> to help calculate your page weight budget. Tools like <a href="https://www.performancebudget.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PerformanceBudget.io</a> can be helpful here.</li>
<li>Decision - After following the two steps above, try and establish a minimum baseline and an ideal weight for each page on your new website moving forward.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<h2>🧬 Write reusable code</h2>
It may seem obvious, but the longer a developer spends working on a project, the more energy they are consuming along the way. Writing reusable code is a great way of speeding up the process while keeping carbon emissions to a minimum.
&nbsp;
Here are some top tips to bear in mind when writing reusable code for your next low-impact web development project:
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Functionality first - Consider whether reused code is the best approach for your current use case. Will your reused code work seamlessly across multiple projects, or will you need to make tailored adjustments each time?</li>
<li>Focus on modularity - Avoid grouping all of your code into a single location. Instead, keep everything segmented into independent chunks and create unique functions and classes so that each block of code solves one problem at a time.</li>
<li>Label everything clearly - Clearly label your code so that it's easy to identify what each class and variable does should you need to come back to the code in the future.</li>
<li>Loose coupling - Trying to avoid coupled modules with high dependencies on each other. Aim to create modules that are able to function independently without any external support.</li>
<li>Unit test classes - Write unit tests for each of your classes, but only test a single function at a time. Consider the preconditions for each function or method you're testing.</li>
<li>Comment your code - Considered best practice amongst website developers for decades, commenting your code makes it easier for both yourself and other developers to keep track of the exact functionality your code performs.</li>
</ul>
<h2> 👾 Use CSS Sprites</h2>
CSS Sprites are often used to speed up website performance while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions. They're a method of combining individual images into a single file that a web page can easily access.
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Instead of loading multiple images on a web page, this single image is then loaded, masked and repositioned so that only the required part of an image displays at any given time, ultimately cutting down on requests to the server and the energy required to make them.
&nbsp;
It's worth noting that improvements in the application layer of the Internet Protocol Suite (particularly multiplexing and server push) mean HTTP requests are far faster and more efficient than ever before. Images requested can be packaged up and fetched much more efficiently and at greater speeds, so it's worth conducting your own testing to determine whether the implementation of CSS sprites actually makes a significant improvement in your own website projects.

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Last month, we were proud to sponsor, and&nbsp; take part in, the 2022&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://www.festivalofsustainablebusiness.co.uk/https://" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Festival of Sustainable Business.&nbsp;</a>
&nbsp;
We make no secret of the fact that we are a planet-first business. That means we design and code <a href="https://www.noughtsandones.com/conscious-development" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in a conscious way&nbsp;</a>for our clients, making sure our carbon footprint is low and offsetting the work we do through our partners&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://ecologi.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ecologi</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://www.getgreenspark.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Greenspark</a>. When Tom saw that the Festival of Sustainable Business was happening, he knew it was something we should be part of. Makes sense right?&nbsp;Greenwashing refers to the practice of marketing a business' products or services to the public as more beneficial or less harmful to the environment than they actually are.
&nbsp;
<h2>A feast for all the senses</h2>
As the official festival carbon offset partner and gala drinks sponsor, the whole team had the opportunity to get spruced up for the gala dinner and Festival of Sustainable Business awards ceremony. We&rsquo;re not ones to turn down the chance for a good meal and an opportunity to celebrate businesses doing stand out stuff in sustainability. Listening to composer <a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="http://www.martinkiszko.com/recent.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Martin Kiszko,</a>&nbsp;the &lsquo;UK&rsquo;s green poet&rsquo; share some of his latest work was illuminating. We don&rsquo;t usually go in for that kind of thing but his words are actually really inspiring - do check him out.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Networking always feels a bit icky but once we&rsquo;d had a glass of something cold, we got into the spirit and before we knew it, were chatting to people from many different businesses who share our ethos. It was really great to see just how many businesses there are in the South West with the same ethos as us.
&nbsp;
We were so proud to have our company name featured alongside such forward-thinking and innovative movers and shakers.
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<h2>Exhibition day</h2>
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The exhibition day itself was really busy. We spent much of the time chatting with other local businesses like us wanting to tackle the global climate emergency. With over 1500 visitors and 50 stands from organisations spanning from Tesla to Dial a Geek and Whale and Dolphin Conservation, there was a lot to take in!&nbsp;
&nbsp;
As well as talks, there were a number of panel discussions which were particularly useful to us. Whilst the speakers may not come from the digital design world, their experiences in overcoming some of the barriers to running a sustainable business really resonated. Turns out that we&rsquo;ve even shared some of the same struggles (and found similar solutions) with a construction company! I was not expecting that!
&nbsp;
<h2>Our sustainability takeaways</h2>
So, a swanky dinner, awards ceremony and exhibition later, what did we take away from the Festival of Sustainable Business, aside from full tummies and sore feet?&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>We are not alone! There are so many businesses (spanning all sorts of industries) who are passionate about working sustainably. Such a great feeling.</li>
<li>There is so much to running a successful sustainable business. We are buzzing with ideas on how we can continue to expand on the work we already do.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Profit does not have to come at the cost of the planet.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Bristol is an awesome place to be. We knew this already but it's nice to be reminded from time to time.&nbsp;</li>
<li>We were a little over-zealous when ordering our event flags which were a little too large for the occasion&hellip;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
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Will we be back next year?&nbsp;Hell yes.&nbsp;
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Sustainability

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In March, Google Analytics announced the inevitable. They're sunsetting the&nbsp;Universal Analytics (UA)&nbsp;branch of its analytics software and from July 2023, it'll be replaced with a more platform-diverse version called&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://blog.google/products/marketingplatform/analytics/new_google_analytics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google Analytics 4</a>&nbsp;(GA4).&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h2>Why is Google moving away from Universal Analytics and what benefit will Google Analytics 4 offer?</h2>
Google Analytics 4 primarily focuses on privacy to provide a better user experience. Users are increasingly expecting to have greater understanding and control over their own data, and GA4 has been built to handle these demands from the user, as well as be in a better position to facilitate the business needs when collecting data.
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Unlike Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 doesn't rely solely on cookies to track user data. It uses an event-based model to create new sessions every time a user revisits your site. This gives admins a better understanding of user behaviour and allows them greater control over what their reports focus on. This should mean the ability to dig deeper and report on very specific areas in a way that UA doesn't currently do.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h2>When and how do I replace Universal Analytics?</h2>
Even though it's a while before Universal Analytics disappears, it&rsquo;s within your interest to start using Google Analytics 4 sooner rather than later. GA4 will only start collecting data from the point the 'property' has been created and the tag has been added to your site. If you do it now, you'll have&nbsp; data collected and ready to go when they switch.&nbsp;
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Alternatively, you can get going with GA4 straight away. Google has given users the option to upgrade early. To do this, simply login to your account, head to the&nbsp;Property&nbsp;column and click on the&nbsp;Upgrade to GA4&nbsp;prompt.
&nbsp;
<h3>Be prepared before you switch&nbsp;</h3>
Before making the changeover, we recommend making doubly sure that Google Analytics 4 has implemented all of the features you need. Whilst it's still evolving, in its current state there are some Universal Analytics features missing:&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Views</li>
<li>Complete IP filtering</li>
<li>Hostname filtering</li>
<li>Session and product-scoped custom dimensions and metrics</li>
<li>Data API updates</li>
<li>Enhanced report filtering and sorting (including regex filters)</li>
<li>Google Optimize integration</li>
<li>Recurring email reports</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<h2>How do I integrate Google Analytics 4 with Shopify?</h2>
Assuming you&rsquo;ve taken the initiative to set up your GA4 property in Google Analytics and have your Shopify site up and running for test transactions at least, you&rsquo;ll want to take three simple steps to ensure that you're successfully integrating Google Analytics 4 with Shopify.
&nbsp;
<h5>Step 1: Add the gtag.js code snippet to the theme.liquid file.</h5>
&nbsp;
Add the gtag.js&nbsp;code snippet to your&nbsp;theme.liquid&nbsp;file so it appears on every page of your site.
&nbsp;
You can find this code snippet in your Google Analytics dashboard under&nbsp;Settings &gt; Properties &gt; Data Streams &gt; [Your Chosen Data Stream] &gt; Tagging Instructions.
&nbsp;
It will look similar to this:
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<h5>Step 2: Manage any unwanted checkout and completed transaction referrals.</h5>
&nbsp;
Ensure the checkout page is not being tracked as a referral when visited and whenever a transaction is completed. You can do this in the same Data Streams&nbsp;panel mentioned previously. Below&nbsp;Tagging Instructions&nbsp;is an option labelled&nbsp;More Tagging Settings. Here you&rsquo;ll see an option called&nbsp;List Unwanted Referrals&nbsp;wherein you can choose&nbsp;Referral Domain Contains&nbsp;and input "myshopify.com".
&nbsp;
<h5>Step 3: Add the final gtag.js code snippet to the order confirmation page</h5>
&nbsp;
Add an additional&nbsp;gtag.js&nbsp;snippet including a purchase event and relevant liquid code to the order confirmation page. You can do this in your Shopify settings panel. Go to&nbsp;Checkout, scroll down the page to&nbsp;Order Status Page&nbsp;and paste the following into the field provided:
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Note: This will require testing depending on the set-up of your store and its products.
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Implementing these three simple steps allows Google Analytics 4 to process your customers' purchases with the correct marketing attribution as accurately as you would expect, but it&rsquo;s really the second step that&rsquo;s doing all of the heavy lifting.
&nbsp;
<h2>How does GA4's integration with Shopify work?</h2>
Due to the way Shopify processes transactions in their secure checkout environment (even with a Shopify Plus account), the user journey that began when they landed on your site ends when they leave for your secure checkout.
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As a result, Google Analytics 4 determines that a user's journey ended at the point the user visited your checkout page. (This prevents a snippet in&nbsp;checkout.liquid&nbsp;from bridging the gap for you Shopify Plus people!).
&nbsp;
So how does adding a purchase event to your order confirmation page help? On its own it doesn&rsquo;t. It would leave you with a slew of purchases all being attributed as referrals from Shopify, which isn&rsquo;t the level of granular attribution you&rsquo;re using Google Analytics 4 for!
&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s the second step, that tells GA4 not to count those referrals from the secure checkout environment that enables you to get the correct user journey attribution. This is because GA4 will count those multiple sessions as a multi-touchpoint user journey, and as long as you&rsquo;re not throwing erroneous referrals in, your results should show which traffic channels are leading to a purchase.
&nbsp;
For more, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2xtClOCB2chttps://" target="_blank" rel="noopener">watch this video</a> provided by our friends over at LOVES DATA that runs through this process step-by-step.

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<h2>The environmental impact of websites and hosting</h2>
A 2017 study concluded that the ICT industry could account for 20% of all electricity usage and emit up to 5.5% of the world&rsquo;s carbon emissions by 2025. By 2040,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/11/tsunami-of-data-could-consume-fifth-global-electricity-by-2025" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data centre pollution is expected to grow to almost 14% of the world's carbon emissions</a>, as much as the entire United States of America.
&nbsp;
The question remains; why is the situation getting worse, and what can businesses do to combat the often unseen yet damaging effects of the internet?
&nbsp;
The obvious reason is that the number of websites is ever growing. There are over 1.9 billion registered websites currently although only 25% are 'live', with the rest either parked or inactive domains. Regardless, the size of the internet has grown 30% a year on average since 2010, and this means more servers and ultimately, more energy to power them.
&nbsp;
Data consumption of websites is also growing, with an upwards trend in the amount of code, imagery and content they contain. In just 10 years, the average web page has quadrupled on desktop from ~500 kb to ~2 MB. On mobile, it's grown tenfold from ~150 kb to ~1.8 MB.
&nbsp;
<h2>Test the environmental impact of your Shopify website</h2>
Online tools, such as Website Carbon (developed by our good friends over at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wholegraindigital.com/https://" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wholegrain Digital</a> 👋), allow users to see what goes on behind the scenes of their website, transforming data into simple, actionable snippets.
&nbsp;
The tool focuses on five key data points to generate an estimate of the environmental impact of a given website;
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Data transfer - The amount of data transferred by a web page, multiplied by its energy usage data and automatically adjusted to account for cached pages by repeat visitors.</li>
<li>Energy intensity - An average figure of 1.8kWh/GB, based on the average amount of energy used by data centres divided by the total annual data transfer over the web.</li>
<li>Energy source - Checking whether the data centre used is currently listed on the Green Web Foundation (GWF) database.</li>
<li>Carbon intensity - Based on the international average of 475 grams CO2 per kWh for non-renewable sources, and 33.4 grams CO2 per kWh for renewable energy.</li>
<li>Website traffic - Carbon per page view multiplied by average annual views.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
For positive scores, the tool includes a code-based badge that can be embedded with just a few lines of code to the footer of any Shopify website. Businesses can proudly display this whilst also encouraging others to think about how their own website might be negatively affecting the environment.
&nbsp;
What is Shopify doing to combat climate change? &nbsp;
Sustainability and the environment are a big focus for Shopify. They're working hard to bring businesses and their customers together in the fight against climate change.
&nbsp;
Here are some of the ways their team has been tackling the climate crisis in recent years, and their plans for the future:&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h2>💵 Investing in an Annual Sustainability Fund</h2>
Shopify have pledged&nbsp;<a href="https://www.shopify.co.uk/climate/sustainability-fund" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$5M annually</a> to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by getting directly involved with new technologies and partnering with like-minded organisations that share the same core beliefs.
&nbsp;
To do this, they've identified ten industries, split into two portfolios, that the team believes will help combat climate change directly:
&nbsp;
Shopify's Frontier Portfolio occupies 76% of the annual fund and focuses on new technologies that aim to completely remove CO2 from the atmosphere, including;
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Direct air capture.</li>
<li>Storing carbon into products and construction materials such as concrete and cement.</li>
<li>Reducing ocean acidification.</li>
<li>Chemically sequestering air-based CO2 into solid minerals that can be stored.</li>
<li>Collaboration and investment with existing climate-first organisations.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
Their Evergreen Portfolio is focused more on temporary but urgent steps that help reduce current carbon emissions. These solutions utilise the remaining 24% of the sustainability fund, by focusing on solutions like;
<ul>
<li>Planting new trees and protecting existing forests.</li>
<li>Using innovative farming techniques to promote soil health and its inherent carbon-storing properties.</li>
<li>Focusing on alternative fuel sources that cause less damage to the environment.</li>
<li>Reducing and offsetting transport emissions.</li>
</ul>
<h2> ☁️ A platform-wide shift to Google Cloud</h2>
Starting in 2018, Shopify decommissioned all of its physical data servers and moved its entire platform to&nbsp;<a href="https://cloud.google.com/why-google-cloud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Cloud</a>, a green hosting solution powered by 100% clean, renewable energy.
&nbsp;
Alongside general speed and performance benefits, cloud hosting is often a much more environmentally-friendly way of managing and sharing online data.
&nbsp;
Unlike a dedicated hosting approach where servers run the risk of being under used while still drawing the same amount of power, a cloud-based approach means that individual server capacity is shared between businesses.
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This ultimately results in fewer servers, utilising less physical equipment, running much more efficiently and drawing far less power than their dedicated counterparts.
&nbsp;
<h2>🏡 LEED-Certified office spaces</h2>
<a href="https://www.usgbc.org/leed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LEED certification</a> (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), is the most widely used rating system in the world for green buildings.
&nbsp;
Points are earned based on a number of ranking factors including:
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Whether native or adaptive vegetation covers at least 20% of the total site area to provide habitat and promote biodiversity.</li>
<li>How easily and available public transportation links are.</li>
<li>Whether bicycle facilities are available.</li>
<li>Whether water is being metered and how efficiently its being used.</li>
<li>What steps are being taken to minimise light pollution</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
These points are then collated and turned into one of four ratings;
<ul>
<li>Platinum (80+ points earned)</li>
<li>Gold (60 - 79 points earned)</li>
<li>Silver (50 - 59 points earned)</li>
<li>Certified (40 - 49 points earned)</li>
</ul>
 Currently, 51% of Shopify's office spaces are ranked LEED Certified or above, resulting in more energy-efficient working environments that have a reduced impact on the planet.
&nbsp;
<h2>How can I improve the environmental impact of my Shopify website?</h2>
 Here are some simple ways you can make your Shopify site that little bit more environmentally friendly:
&nbsp;
<h2>🧭 User journeys / experience</h2>
It's a common misconception that the total time a user spends on your website, or the bounce rate (percentage of users who leave your site after only visiting one page), are key to your website's search engine ranking.
&nbsp;
The longer a user spends on your Shopify website, the more energy they consume. There can be real environmental benefits from minimising the amount of time a user spends visiting your online store.
&nbsp;
In e-commerce, a sustainable goal should be guiding a user through their purchase journey in the shortest time possible.
&nbsp;
Simple things like a <a href="https://pagefly.io/blogs/shopify/one-page-checkout" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one-page checkout</a> not only minimise the loading of additional and unnecessary pages, they can also increase your conversion rate and even generate more sales.
&nbsp;
Cut down on unnecessary page visits with efficient content linked to the key words your customers are searching for. Alongside this, a clear SEO strategy will help to put your site in front of the right people. Finally, guiding organic traffic to the right place can also help bring down the carbon footprint of internet users outside of your own customer base.
&nbsp;
<h2>📷 Website images</h2>
High-quality image use has grown massively over the past ten years, and accounts for between 40 - 60% of average page weight when a user loads a site for the first time.
&nbsp;
With any website, it&rsquo;s crucial that self-hosted images are compressed for faster loading times. The key is to strike a balance between crisp quality and low file size. As a general rule, something between 150 kb - 250 kb works best.
&nbsp;
Free online tools like <a href="https://imagecompressor.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Optimizilla</a> or <a href="https://tinypng.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TinyPNG</a> are easy and effective ways of compressing images for those who don't have access to editing software like Adobe Photoshop.
&nbsp;
<h2>🔤 Custom fonts</h2>
Each time a web page with custom fonts is loaded for the first time, CSS code and a JavaScript request occur. The font file is then downloaded and temporarily stored on a user's machine so they can view the page properly.
&nbsp;
If your website uses third-party typography from sources such as Adobe Fonts (previously Typekit) or Google Fonts, an extra connection is often made in order to validate whether you are properly licensed to use the chosen typeface on your website.
&nbsp;
To cut down on performance costs and unnecessary server requests, try avoiding custom fonts. Choose default fonts that a user will already have on their machine.
&nbsp;
That said, if custom typography is an absolute must, consider converting fonts to a more efficient format such as WOFF or WOFF2. This can <a href="https://www.wholegraindigital.com/blog/performant-web-fonts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bring the total file size down</a> by anywhere from 50% to 75%.
&nbsp;
<h2>🧃 The products themselves</h2>
One of the best things a product-led business can do to reduce their environmental impact is consider how their products are packaged.
&nbsp;
Research suggests that <a href="https://waitrose.pressarea.com/pressrelease/details/78/NEWS_13/10259" target="_blank" rel="noopener">88% of people who viewed BBC's Blue Planet II in 2018 have since drastically changed their behaviour</a> when purchasing products that use plastic or non-recyclable packaging.
&nbsp;
Consider asking your suppliers to reduce the amount of excess packaging used in the manufacturing and delivery of your products.
&nbsp;
<h2>📦 Shipping and logistics</h2>
Smaller e-commerce businesses looking to improve their carbon footprint could consider offering local delivery for online orders. If your business operates at a large enough scale, consider utilising localised distribution centres nearer to your customers.
&nbsp;
For US and Canada based Shopify websites, they also offer the use of their own distribution centres. This can save business owners time and help reduce postage costs, while cutting down on transport emissions.
&nbsp;
Aim to be clearer when talking about your supply chain. &nbsp;If your business already has a clear environmental ethos, include a sustainability page or banner to go into more detail on what you're doing.

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As new emerging technologies pave the way for innovation, businesses, regardless of size and industry, must keep up with the latest trends. The same goes for the ever-evolving e-commerce space.
&nbsp;
Here at Noughts Ones, we build sales-friendly Shopify stores for planet-friendly brands.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
To kick off our 2022 chapter, as well as our new website, we are extremely excited to announce that we&rsquo;ve recently been recognised as a Clutch Leader!&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Clutch is an independent agency review platform designed to showcase the worlds best agencies through truthful and data-driven insights. The platform&rsquo;s latest&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://clutch.co/uk/developers/ecommerce/leaders-matrix" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2022 research states</a> that Noughts &amp; Ones is among the highest-performing e-commerce developers in the UK.
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We wouldn&rsquo;t be celebrating this feat without our clients &mdash; they are the reason why we&rsquo;re a Clutch leader. Because of their&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://clutch.co/profile/noughts-ones#reviews" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">amazing reviews</a>, we&rsquo;re able to prove our expertise and gain honour from industry experts.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Thank you so much to all our clients who put their trust and confidence in us.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
We owe this milestone to you!
&nbsp;
<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://www.noughtsandones.com/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Get in touch&nbsp;</a>with our friendly team to find out more about how we can help you sell your products in the right way.

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I have a personal digital carbon footprint?
&nbsp;
YES!
&nbsp;
Digital media and the internet has had a hugely positive impact on the fight against climate change and reduce CO2 emissions by facilitating information and conversation.
&nbsp;
That being said, the internet and digital is also pretty dirty. We all have a personal digital carbon footprint and the production, usage and data transfer of digital devices causes more CO2 you might think.
&nbsp;
Below are some easy things that you can put into action&nbsp;right now&nbsp;to help you get greener online!
&nbsp;
<h5>😴 Avoid Sleep Mode</h5>
Regularly turning your laptop and other electrical devices off helps reduce energy usage. Although Sleep Mode may appear to use a small amount energy, it's effectively wasted.
&nbsp;
<h5>💡 Turn down the brightness</h5>
It may seem super obvious, but lowering your screen brightness will improve its battery life and mean you'll need to charge less often. Turning your monitor brightness down from 100% to 70% can&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://green.harvard.edu/tools-resources/green-tip/reduce-monitor-brightness-reduce-energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">save up to 20% of the energy used</a>. Plus, lowering brightness also reduces&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://www.wired.com/2013/09/flux-eyestrain/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eye strain</a>.
&nbsp;
<h5>📬 Manage your inbox</h5>
Generally speaking the less emails you send the better, especially those 'reply all' emails to multiple people. Try to keep the your attachments a small as possible and use Rich Text format, which supports in-line attachments. Make sure you unsubscribe from newsletters you&rsquo;re no longer interested in and regularly&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/4493489/how-to-delete-emails-older-than-a-certain-date?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">delete old emails</a>&nbsp;to reduce data storage.
&nbsp;
<h5>⬇️ Download rather than stream</h5>
Streaming is responsible for 300 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually and it's a figure that's rising. Download the albums and movies you listen or watch to regularly to reduce your streaming impact.
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<h5>🔎 Use a planet-friendly search engine</h5>
Every single Google search requires&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://business.directenergy.com/blog/2017/november/powering-a-google-search" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the same amount of energy</a>&nbsp;as turning on a 60-watt light bulb for 17 seconds, this may not seem like much but it adds up quickly when you consider that 97,000+ searches are&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://www.internetlivestats.com/one-second/#google-band" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">made every second</a>.&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://www.ecosia.org/?c=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ecosia</a>&nbsp;dedicate 100% of their profits to climate action, with at least 80% financing tree-planting projects.&nbsp;<a class="Link-module--link--P9E65 Link-module--linkEmphasisHigh--E94t2 Link-module--linkReverse--tSUSI Text-module--textWeightNormal--fNka3" href="https://www.givewater.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">giveWater</a>&nbsp;distribute the profits from ad revenue to water charities that provide clean water to those in need.
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<h5>💻 Browse consciously</h5>
There are some surprisingly simple changes you can make to reduce the footprint of your day-to-day browsing; avoid having multiple tabs open at once, use bookmarks instead of search engines for the site you visit regularly, turn off autoplaying videos.
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<h5>🛩 Switch to Airplane Mode</h5>
Stop you mobile device searching for a data connection by switching to airplane mode at night. Even better, turn it off!
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<h5>🔌 Hook up directly</h5>
Wireless technology uses considerably more power, so use wired connections over wireless whenever possible and wi-fi over 3G or 4G.
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So there you have it, eight easily achievable steps to help you reduce your digital carbon footprint today. If we all do a bit, it'll soon add up to a lot!
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