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A digital sustainability audit to reduce environmental impact

with University of Dundee

55%

potential reduction in carbon emissions

Recommended actions being undertaken

by the university

Working with The University of Dundee to benchmark the digital carbon impact of their digital estate as well as  prioritised recommendations to improve it.

Dundee Sustainability Audit
Three pages from a manifesto sustainability audit

Challenge

The University of Dundee is committed to reducing all carbon emissions to a net zero position by 2045. To enable this it is undertaking a review to identify opportunities to lower its environmental impact.

manifesto was asked to support Dundee’s web team in analysing how much the university website estate contributed to the university’s overall emissions.

Using the insights from this analysis we were also asked to recommend practical solutions to reduce their carbon output. 

Solution

A digital sustainability audit that recommends how to reduce environmental impact.

Quantifying the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of a website involves considering various factors, like traffic volume, and  the number of pages. While making direct comparisons is challenging due to lack of benchmarking standards, the audit provides valuable insights based on industry best practices and our experience. The analysis focused on these key areas:

  • Web traffic - the web traffic for the files served from the user-facing parts of the web sites generates  the most carbon impact. This encompasses web pages, javascript and css files, images and video. 

  • Site infrastructure - the infrastructure of a website, including how it is served to end users and the technologies used, has a significant impact on its carbon footprint.

  • Content workflows - Efficient content management and auditing processes are essential. Reducing redundant or outdated content can significantly lower the environmental impact of a website. A formal content creation and publishing workflow, along with automated reporting, will save costs and reduce energy use.

Our analysis also covered the content delivery network, digital asset traffic, and YouTube video traffic.

Throughout the document, the recommendations are prioritised  in terms of the greatest potential for reduced emissions and environmental impact.

Impact

manifesto estimated the total environmental impact of the University of Dundee website, including its web traffic and server infrastructure for the past year. We identified a number of actions that if all undertaken, could create at least a 55% reduction in carbon emissions across the University’s digital estate.

Uni Dundee Environmental Impact Table
A table showing data on the university's environmental impact

Using the findings and recommendations in our report the University of Dundee web team is working through a roadmap and backlog of actions that will reduce the carbon emissions of their digital estate.  

We plan to continue working together to monitor, analyse and benchmark the progress of their carbon emissions reduction and overall environmental impact. 

 

 

At the University of Dundee we were seeking a method through which we could accurately benchmark our carbon footprint for the institutional website. Previous attempts had wide variations in results and left us feeling unsure what could make a material difference. manifesto came in and through a robust process laid down a solid benchmark. This also provided a prioritised pipeline of work that we had high confidence would make a material difference - at least a 55% reduction in global warming potential for our website! This is the latest in a series of partnerships with manifesto that utilises a knowledge exchange methodology that provides quick ROI to the business whilst upskilling internal teams.

Andrew MillarHead of Web Services, University of Dundee