Is the GGSN greenwashing?

Eco-design is no longer an option, but a necessity in the quest for digital sustainability. In this respect, it is important to distinguish between true sustainability efforts and simple greenwashing. The General reference for the design of digital services (GHSN) meets this need for transparency and commitment.

Eco-design vs greenwashing

💡 The term greenwashing means a method of communication used by an organization to create a responsible social and environmental image – often further from reality.

As a web developer, I am constantly facing challenges in terms of performance, accessibility and web quality. When I heard about the GESN (General Digital Services Design), it immediately stopped, because It perfectly completes the field of intervention of a good web craftsman.

When eco-design is discussed, there are usually three types of reactions:

1. Eco-enthusiasts who believe that an eco-designed site is the solution to all ecological problems. They think this could save the planet, counter global warming, and protect species like seals and polar bears.
2. Eco-opportunists, in the context of a company, think that this will compensate for every mistake, lead to carbon neutrality, cancel the CO2 of each move, and lead to an irreproachable Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
3. Eco-sceptics completely reject the argument, suspecting that it is simply a question of greenwashing.

I, who like to have opinions, went to study this new repository to understand and have a clearer vision of the subject.

And... I immediately felt like home! There is, in fact, some familiarity with web quality repository Opquast – whose black belt I have been wearing since last year!

The GENG is a collection of universal, useful and verifiable rules around eco-design. Like web quality, it is a journey, an endurance marathon, whose aim is to create a foundation of good practices with the ambition to gradually improve the web.

The eco-design integrates environmental criteria from the design stage, aiming to minimize the ecological footprint while maintaining quality. Unlike greenwashingeco-design represents a genuine and tangible commitment to the environment.

To sum up:

The greenwashing can be misleading, giving a false impression of durability. It is a marketing strategy that can mislead consumers, contenting with a green appearance without real transformation of production processes.

On the other hand, eco-design is transparent and authentic, seeking to improve reality rather than disguise it. It puts sustainability into practice, going beyond ecological claims to achieve concrete efforts to reduce environmental impact. It's a long-term philosophy, but it's a very important step to take..

A universal benchmark in 8 sections

1. Strategy

The eco-design strategy requires special attention to the environmental impacts and utility of the service. Users' needs must be taken into account and adapted to different types of terminals. A reference in digital eco-design must be identified, and targets and indicators must be set to measure and reduce impacts.

2. Specifications

Specifications must incorporate environmental impact reduction objectives into the design and code reviews. It is also important to provide for the decommissioning of unused components and to select third party providers and services that are committed to reducing their impacts.

3. Architecture

The architecture must be designed to reduce environmental impacts. This can be done by adapting the amount of resources used according to the consumption of the service, following the technical evolution of the protocols, and by providing for corrective updates throughout the service life.

4. UX(« user experience)

The user experience must take into account digital cleavage and optimize the browsing path to reduce the number of queries. Animations are optional, as are third party services, videos and analytics. It is also important to limit unnecessary notifications and give users the opportunity not to load everything.

5. Content

Content must be optimized in terms of size, including by including images, audio, video and other files.

6. Front-end

The front-end must respect a weight limit per screen, limit the number of queries, and use techniques such as cache, lazy load, and local storage. It should also serve images in the right size and reduce or limit the data exchanged.

7. Back-end

The back-end must be optimized by activating the server cache, using compression and archiving or deleting outdated documents.

8. Accommodation

Finally, accommodation must be chosen according to environmental criteria. It is recommended that a hosting provider be selected near the site audience, which complies with the European Code of Conduct (EUP, WUE), uses renewable energy sources and has environmental certification (ISO14001, ISO50001, LEED, BREAM, HQE).

So what?

All this is interesting, but how can I put these principles into practice in my daily developer?

1. I can choose a good accommodation by checking the certifications carefully.
2. I can reduce server environments to a reasonable number (e.g. one for development and one for production).
3. I can organize workshops with clients to identify really useful features and rule out those that seem superfluous.
4. I can use tools like Ecoindex, correct problems and constantly monitor the evolution of a site – work already done for performance, but which can be pushed further by making greener choices.
5. To go further, I can also imagine give the user the choice on the data he wishes to download (like pictures, videos, optional fonts.)
6. I can automate as much as possible value for money : compression of images, fonts, CSS, JS, etc...

WordPress and eco-design do they do good cleaning?

The last two versions of WordPress have benefited from a huge effort by developers to boost CMS performance. With the introduction of the new Interactivity API based on Preact (the cousin of React) and the whole new way to load JS modules, We are witnessing an important change, similar to the revolution that we have already experienced in the golden era of JQuery.

With this new situation, we will no longer think in terms of templates, but in terms of blocks. Each of these blocks will bring its own CSS and JS, in order to build pages with highly optimized resources.

Conclusion

Thus, adopting digital sobriety – and the same applies to accessibility for example – should not be a challenge, but rather a simple and obvious default choice. Eco-design is not greenwashing. This is a clear and tangible commitment to the environment: an approach that deserves to be welcomed, encouraged and applied as widely as possible. And fortunately, WordPress is there to make our life easier!