Building the Sustainable Web

The web has become one of the most influential systems shaping our lives. It connects billions of people every day, yet this convenience carries an impact we rarely see. The energy used to design, build, host, and use digital products affects both people and the planet, even though most of that impact is invisible, widely distributed, and easy to underestimate. Your website or application may only represent a small fraction of the total, but the scale of the web means that every improvement matters. And even if sustainability is not your first motivation, the same decisions that lower environmental impact usually improve performance, accessibility, user trust, and long term maintainability. Better for people, better for organisations, better for the planet. Building the Sustainable Web takes you through the entire digital stack and shows where impact happens, why it matters, and how to make meaningful progress. From infrastructure choices and backend architecture to frontend performance, UX design, content strategy, and marketing practices, this book gives you practical ways to make digital products lighter, faster, and more responsible. It also explains what we can measure today, what remains uncertain, and how to navigate that complexity without getting stuck. You Will : - Learn how the web’s physical footprint works and where its energy and emissions come from - Learn to estimate the impact of websites and web applications using today’s best available models - Understand How backend and infrastructure decisions influence performance, cost, and sustainability - Explore how to design and build frontend experiences that are faster, lighter, and more inclusive - Learn how to build workflows and governance that keep websites efficient over time