If you still think going paperless means going green, it may be time to rethink what you know about sustainability. With every email you send, every web page you host, and every PPC ad you buy, you’re raising your carbon footprint. That’s because digital communications rely on extensive networks of hardware, all of which use up energy and increase carbon emissions. From your office computers to data centers to customers’ devices, each link in the chain takes a toll.
As a digital marketer, you can work toward reducing your carbon emissions by being thoughtful and intentional about your campaigns. You can take measures to reduce the amount of unnecessary messages you send, choose sustainable technologies, and partner with eco-friendly companies. Here are some of the ways to build a more sustainable digital marketing strategy beyond convincing customers to ditch the snail mail.
Update Your Website
Your clunky old website may not just be frustrating your customers; it might also be driving up your carbon footprint. Asset-heavy, slow-loading websites often have what’s called a higher “page weight,” meaning they use up more electricity. In addition, customers may reload repeatedly when they think a page isn’t loading properly. This results in even more server requests and more unnecessary data transfers and electricity use.
To give one example, many law firms have extremely asset-heavy company websites. A typical landing page might have a live chat pop-up, contact form, and an auto-play video all on the first page. These kinds of widgets can still be eco-friendly, but only if they’re built on top of fast-running, high-performing site architecture. More sustainable law firm digital marketing strategies prioritize optimizing site performance and reducing unnecessary data loads. In addition to reducing emissions, building more efficient sites could attract a lot more business.
Brighter creative assets — eg. photos, videos, backgrounds, and other graphic design elements — use more energy and increase a site’s carbon footprint. Reducing the brightness, or even offering a dark mode option, can make your site more eco-friendly. As with page speed, it can also keep customers from clicking away from your page. When eyewear brand Arnette implemented a dark mode option, conversion rates increased by as much as 32%.
Reduce and Reuse Assets
Often, much of the carbon footprint of digital marketing comes from producing, storing, and transferring creative assets. That includes everything that goes into taking photos, producing videos, recording music or other audio, designing logos, writing blog posts, etc. Consider creating a video: there are carbon costs associated with filming equipment, lighting, location costs, and production. Factor in transportation footprint too, if anyone travels to get to the shoot.
Once an asset is produced, carbon costs can and do still continue to mount. One MIT researcher found that cloud storage now has a greater total footprint than the entire air travel industry. Cloud storage is environmentally costly on many levels, in many different ways. Everything from manufacturing servers to staffing data centers with employees who drive to work or fly to sales meetings has a carbon footprint.
To lower the impact of your digital marketing strategy, consider every stage of the asset production process. Do your employees need to drive to work to draw up logos, or could they do it from home with the right equipment? Do you need to rent (and power and staff) a sound stage and lighting, or could your video be shot outdoors? Which obsolete assets could you delete to save cloud storage, and where might you re-use assets instead of creating new ones?
Work With Sustainable Partners
Just because you work hard to improve your carbon footprint doesn’t mean all your partners are doing the same. By choosing more eco-friendly partners, you can reduce your environmental impact even more. For example, instead of simply streamlining your website, you could also switch to a green hosting provider. They can further reduce your environmental impact through strategies like using renewable energy sources and minimizing energy consumption.
There’s also a small but growing market for eco-friendly email clients. These companies both reduce and offset your carbon emissions by creating lower-emissions emails, using energy-efficient infrastructure, and funding environmental causes like reforestation. If you’re not ready to switch providers, you can lighten your own emails, sending fewer, smaller messages to a cleaner client list. Condensing images and deleting inactive subscribers can go a long way.
When choosing new partners or evaluating old ones, look at their sustainability policies and credentials. Look for B Corps, companies using green energy or carbon offsets, and others that share your eco-friendly values. Most importantly, screen your partners for any bad press or poor environmental track record. Avoid companies that lack transparency or who have been accused of greenwashing in the past.
Investing in a Greener Future
Sustainability isn’t just about hopping on what’s trendy at the moment and abandoning it when the next thing comes along. It’s about making a lasting commitment to building practices and using technologies that contribute to long-term change. Don’t just think in terms of buying new software or tech, but rather learn how to work better with what you already have. Recycle and reuse old devices, delete old emails and files, and develop other green habits wherever possible.
Oftentimes, this starts with developing an office culture of sustainability, where team members are empowered to contribute. Rather than implementing top-down green policies, enlist your staff to help you build a more eco-friendly marketing strategy. They can help find new ways to green-ify, by sourcing better vendors and partners, cutting communications volume, and more. They might also find creative new ways to reuse old assets and otherwise do more with less.
