Leave a green impression: be a sustainable brand online

But have you ever stopped to consider just how sustainable you are in the digital world?

We know you care about sustainability, so shouldn't you extend that care to your online presence too? After all, the internet is a BIG part of our daily lives.

Let's ensure you're being as sustainable online as in the "real" world. We're talking about mindful design, energy-efficient devices, and conscious data usage. It's time to give your digital habits a sustainability check-up.

Being a sustainable brand online shows that we care about the planet and want to impact our world positively. Plus, it's a great way to attract customers who share similar values and want to support businesses doing good.

Ready to join the sustainable revolution? These are our top 3 reasons why businesses need to take control of their digital presence and brand online.

1. Demonstrating adaptability

Ever since the pandemic, there’s been an even bigger shift to the digital space, and more brands have maximised the opportunity with an online presence. That demonstrates adaptability (and survival). Still, with more and more businesses going online, it means more and more carbon emissions and less consideration for the environment, with businesses looking for quick fixes—like pre-made templates and bloated, slow websites from builders such as Wix, Squarespace and WordPress.

That means the web’s footprint is increasing exponentially, and it’s down to us to demonstrate our adaptability by being more conscious of the problem we’re creating. It’s a domino effect but one we have the ability to improve with more accessible, more sustainable and more mindful design and development of websites.

2. Consumers want to see, work with and buy from sustainable brands

People have inherently become more risk-averse when it comes to spending their money. They’re actively looking for brands that align with their values, too. Millennials, especially. Sustainability is a big factor for consumers now, and they’re actively relating to brands that are pro-social messaging and pro-environment and are demonstrating ethical standards.

Transparency and consistency are key to building trust with consumers. When you deliver on your promises and show commitment to sustainability, they are more than happy to pay a little extra and invest in a brand that invests in the planet. People want to do their bit for the environment; how they shop online and who they buy from is an easy way for them to start.

3. Online perception: build trust, stay relevant, and achieve loyalty

Loyalty programmes, loyalty cards, and keeping consumers happy with the benefits of being part of the “gang” or community; people inherently want to be loyal and retaining consumers is vital for businesses.

That means the online perception of a brand is everything. After all, for many, social media or a website is their first impression. Having an environmental impact or social policy page tucked away on your website is not good enough anymore. Consumers don’t have much time to peruse, and actively shortening dwell time online is better for the environment. How many clicks does it take for someone visiting your website to see that you’re a sustainable brand?

It’s time to be upfront about how sustainable your business and brand are and what you’re doing to be better.

1. Innocent Drinks

Their green switch does a great job of educating people on why this is important. The switch reduces colour brightness and limits the amount of animation. It will also swap out photographs for much smaller vector files.

2. Arnette

Arnette is green through and through with their completely sustainable sunglasses: from frames to lens to packaging. They include a light/dark mode toggle on their website and openly talk about the ways they have made their website consume as little energy as possible.

3. Fairtrade

As you’d expect, Fairtrade has a clean website powered entirely by renewable energy. Its speed and performance are also very efficient. You can toggle contrast and font sizes making it very accessible and inclusive to more audiences.

Work with us on your digital presence

At Abstrakt, we elevate brands online through user experience, web design and super quick, lightweight Craft CMS websites. We’re focused on becoming net-zero by the end of 2023 and working toward more mindful design and web development to demonstrate brand sustainability.

Our responsibility as designers, developers, and a digital business is to ensure that what we’re putting online is lean, sustainable and accessible for all.

If you want to maximise your online potential, demonstrate your digital sustainability and be more accessible to a wider (growing) audience, you’re in the right place.