For years, we have treated digital as weightless.
Websites were clean. Apps were efficient. Carbon doesn’t live on the internet, it hangs around in factories, on roads, in the air above runways.
That assumption is now quietly doing real damage.
The Nation of The Internet is a Major Polluter
According to a report by the Global Carbon Project, if the internet were a country, it would sit between Mexico and Brazil as a global emitter ᵃ. Around 3.7% of global carbon emissions already come from digital activity, more than aviation, and rising fast ᵇ. And yet most organisations still treat digital infrastructure as if it has no environmental cost at all.
This blind spot matters, because digital is no longer peripheral: it’s the front door.
A better way to be sustainable
When famille worked with Urban&Civic to develop a greener, cleaner digital footprint framework, the starting point was not technology. Master Developers like Urban&Civic are shaping physical places, homes, communities and public life. There needs to be a blend of low carbon construction and digital footprint to ensure all levels of a project are carbon conscious.
The truth is that digital sustainability is not about one big technical fix. It is about hundreds of small decisions made early, then repeated consistently. The rules should be:
- What are you building?
- Why are you building it?
- Who are you building it for?
- How much do you really need?
Most digital carbon is locked in at the design stage. Bloated websites, duplicated platforms, unnecessary animations, poorly structured journeys, and inaccessible content that forces users to work harder and stay longer. These are not just bad experiences. They are inefficient systems burning energy for no reason.
Sustainability is Accessibility
What surprises many teams we work with is how closely sustainability and accessibility align. A lean website is almost always a more accessible one. Clear journeys reduce data transfer. Thoughtful content hierarchy reduces load. Designing for diverse users creates simpler, more efficient infrastructure for everyone.
The work is not about policing behaviour. It is about mindset.
The framework to deliver sustainability.
- Awareness: Many people have no idea that digital activity carries this kind of impact. Second, Sustainability: The future of the planet cannot sit with comms teams alone. Agencies, developers, hosting providers and internal teams all shape outcomes.
- Continuous Improvement. Auditing once is not enough. Websites evolve. Content grows. Efficiency slips unless it is revisited deliberately. And finally, measurement. What is not tracked is quietly abandoned.
Not following this framework is why many organisations stumble. They see sustainability as a badge, not a discipline.
Digital sustainability is not performative. It does not live in a campaign or a statement. It lives in procurement decisions, design briefs, hosting renewals and content governance. It requires permission to think long term rather than ship fast and move on.
Sustainable marketing is not about doing less. It is about doing better.