The Internet’s usage of dirty energy is a growing concern. The Internet’s data centres alone may already have the same CO₂ footprint as global air travel. For the first time, this year’s Internet Health Report by the Mozilla Foundation has explicitly stated that sustainability should be a bigger priority for the industry.
WordPress is the most widely used CMS on the Internet. As of April 2018, it powers 30.6% of the world’s top 10 million websites. This makes WordPress a concentrated target to promote the greening of the Internet.
Fortunately, some big hosting players in the WordPress space are already in The Green Web Foundation’s directory. Notably, DreamHost.
However, there is a lot more work we can do here. As a developer, the simplest step I could take was to submit a plugin to the WordPress plugin repository. Therefore I have created The Green Web Widget. It is a very simple plugin that allows users to easily display The Green Web Foundation’s badge. The badge shows whether your WordPress host is green or not.
In conclusion, if you are a WordPress user, I would love to see people using this widget. And if you’re still hosted grey, why not get in touch with your host and encourage them to make a commitment to sustainability?
Photo by Master Wen on Unsplash.
