Web Sustainability Guidelines: Getting Started

The Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) are a W3C community draft report first published on October 10th, 2023.

The current version 1.0 is quite extensive with 92 guidelines, each of which includes success criteria, info on the benefits of each guideline, help for compliance reporting, an example and/or links to resources.

So where to begin? Consider starting with these 20 guidelines that have the highest impact and lowest or medium effort in the categories:


User Experience Design

All images must be optimized for sustainability

High Impact, Low Effort

Use decorative design with care

High Impact, Medium Effort

Avoid being manipulative or deceptive

High Impact, Medium Effort

All audio or video must be optimized for sustainability

High Impact, Medium Effort

Policies and processes must exist to get stakeholders invested

High Impact, Medium Effort

Check for compatibility or platform-specific issues

High Impact, Medium Effort

Web Development

Third-party services should be assessed as first parties

High Impact, Medium Effort

Use beneficial JavaScript and its APIs

High Impact, Medium Effort

Hosting, Infrastructure, and Systems

Compress files where it is beneficial

High Impact, Low Effort

Choose a sustainable hosting provider

High Impact, Medium Effort

Allow automation but ensure it is tightly regulated

High Impact, Medium Effort

Business Strategy And Product Management

Follow a product management and maintenance strategy

High Impact, Low Effort

Establish if a digital product or service is necessary

High Impact, Low Effort

Implement sustainability onboarding guidelines

High Impact, Medium Effort

Create one or more impact business models

High Impact, Medium Effort

Share any economic benefits

High Impact, Medium Effort

Promote responsible data practices

High Impact, Medium Effort

Promote and implement responsible emerging technology practices

High Impact, Medium Effort

Include organizational philanthropy policies

High Impact, Medium Effort

Include e-waste, right-to-repair, and recycling policies

High Impact, Medium Effort

Source: Web Sustainability Guidelines JSON API