Based on the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption of the 90 most representative sites of the French economy (companies, media and entertainment, commercial sites and public services), the barometer alerts us to the environmental footprint of the digital sector, which is tending to surpass that of the aviation sector.
By 2025, the environmental footprint of digital will represent 5-6% of the global GHG footprint. For comparison, the air sector’s footprint in 2019 represented 4-5%. This corresponds to an increase of almost 300% between 2010 (when it represented 2%) and 2025. Similarly, a web page today weighs 155 times more than ten years ago.
To limit the impact of digital technology on global warming, part of the solution lies in the design of websites. Measuring the environmental impact of each website is the first step in giving it a grade (between A and G) and initiating action to reduce its environmental footprint.
By launching the first digital eco-design barometer in France, Razorfish and the Green IT collective wish to set a first milestone, a reference to measure the most efficient digital practices for society and the planet.
Key data
Digital contributes to climate change in an exponential way. Indeed, the annual environmental impact of websites generates :
- 8 Million keqCO2, or the equivalent of 1,139 world tours
- 119 million liters of water, or 2,244 years of water consumption for a French person
Digital must improve its eco-design score:
- The digital eco-design score of the 90 websites studied was 29/100, equivalent to an E rating.
- For the 50 most consulted websites in France, the average eco-design score is 25/100:
- Three quarters of the sites studied have a score equal or lower than E.
- Among the 50 websites studied, the websites of public services stand out with an average score of 37/100, i.e. a D grade.
- For the 40 sites of the CAC40 groups, the average eco-design score is 34/100
- More than half of the sites have a grade equal or lower than E.
This study is a first in France. The environmental footprint of 90 sites most representative of the French economic and consumption landscape was analyzed:
- The 40 corporate sites of the CAC 40
- The 50 sites most visited by the French: 30 shopping sites, 10 media and entertainment sites, 10 public service sites.
This measurement was carried out using the RAZOSCAN tool, itself built around the Ecoindex.fr algorithm created by GreenIT.fr, in order to assign an environmental score calculated from the number of elements on the page (DOM), the number of http requests and the weight of the page.
This barometer is intended to be renewed every year, in order to monitor progress year after year.