Who will win the 2022 World Cup? For now, we don’t know, but from the perspective of web sustainability, the World Cup of digital sustainability goes to Brazil.
Every web page pollutes, causing CO2 emissions; to draw attention to the issue of “digital pollution,” KarmaMetrix.com calculated the CO2 emissions caused by the homepages of the websites of the teams qualified for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, simulating the World Cup table, with the groups and matchups exactly as they will be in Qatar.
Among the qualified teams, the website of the Brazilian Football Federation is the most sustainable (55 kg of CO2 per year*), followed by Denmark and Germany (111 kg of CO2 per year* each) completing the podium with equal merit.
The last place in the digital sustainability ranking is occupied by the United States (6,655 kg of CO2 per year*), followed by Canada (4,521 kg of CO2 per year*) and Switzerland (1,323 kg of CO2 per year*).
“It is important to raise awareness about the fact that the web also pollutes and contributes to climate change, which affects every corner of our planet,” comments Ale Agostini, founder of Karma Metrix. “Making digital objects more efficient and eco-sustainable means contributing to the fight against climate change. Football and sports can contribute and set an example.”
According to the online carbon calculator Website Carbon, the average website produces 1.76g of CO2 for each page view; thus, a site with 100,000 page views per month emits 2,112kg of CO2 per year. The more complex a site is, the more energy it requires to load – and the greater its climate impact.