Have you ever wondered about the environmental impact of loading a webpage? Or what makes one webpage more environmentally sustainable than another?
With Sussex due to roll out a new website and intranet in 2026, the New Web Estate project team are working hard to ensure that best-practice sustainability principles guide the design, build and operation of our new website.
In this article, Adam Newman, Sussex graduate and co-founder of Root & Branch, a software consultancy that helps organisations develop low-carbon solutions, offers his insight into how Sussex can create a website that matches our sustainability ambitions.
Starting with the correct principles
“There are a lot of different factors that can impact the sustainability of a website” says Adam. “It’s not just about the amount of information you store. In fact, that’s a relatively small part of the equation.
Proportionally, most of the energy and carbon consumption associated with a high traffic website usually comes from people loading pages and interacting with websites on their devices.
For that reason, good website design is essential. That can mean choosing the right development frameworks, optimising assets, hosting choices, and content management strategy - right down to the user experience and design of individual webpages."
Page efficiency
Sussex is working with Manifesto, a leading digital experience agency, on the design and development of the new website. Sustainability is a core part of the design strategy, and various measures are being taken minimise the environmental impact and maximise accessibility of the new pages, including:
- Using ‘lazy loading’, where images only load when a user scrolls them into view
- Taking advantage of the circle shapes and colours in Sussex brand refresh to create lightweight ‘scalable vector graphic’ (SVG) files for use across the site
- Selecting optimal file types for other types of images used elsewhere.
Our new website and intranet will also be based on a ‘connected content’ operating model, where information such as course dates or photographs can be stored centrally and displayed across any number of pages.
This model will reduce the overall amount of information we store, improve page efficiency, and make it easier to keep information accurate, consistent and relevant across the site.
Measurement is key
“When it comes to improving sustainability, committing to consistently measuring the efficiency of the website is essential,” explains Adam. “You can put all the right tools in place to optimise webpage efficiency, but you have to make sure they’re being used correctly.
Websites change over time, and so do user needs and journeys. Monitoring the energy efficiency of webpages, in combination with back-end elements such as servers and network infrastructure, will ensure that Sussex’s new website remains an example of digital best-practice for years to come.”
Next steps
The new website is now under development, with Phase 1 – a new external facing website – due for delivery in early 2026. Phase 2 – the rollout of a new staff intranet – will follow later in the year.
Some staff will soon be contacted as part of the ongoing content audit of our current website. Don't worry if you haven't heard anything yet - we are conducting the audit in stages, focusing on content for prospective students first. All staff with responsibility for particular webpages or web content will be contacted in due course and we won't make any changes without your input. If you have any questions in the meantime, please email dcm@sussex.ac.uk.