Cooperation enables accurate calculation, CO₂ offsetting and carbon-neutral websites

Websites and the use of the internet should cause as few CO₂ emissions as possible, and ideally be carbon neutral. This is the aim of the cooperation between climate action expert ClimatePartner and website user experience expert Ryte, who have jointly developed their previous solutions. They therefore present the Website Carbon KPI, a joint solution that calculates and offsets the CO₂ footprint of websites with unprecedented accuracy. A carbon footprint calculation is the basis for companies to reduce the CO₂ emissions of their websites and to offset unavoidable emissions. ClimatePartner and Ryte will each market the solution and offer it to their customers independently.

The need for increased climate action in the digital sector is obvious: the volume of data and the associated energy requirements of the internet continue to increase and have virtually exploded due to the pandemic. Consequently, the amount of CO₂ emissions caused by internet use is also increasing; estimates put this at almost 7 percent of global emissions by 2025.

The solution: calculate precisely, improve consistently

ClimatePartner and Ryte want to answer this development with a solution that can not only calculate the CO₂ emissions of websites as accurately as possible, but one that can also offset the emisions and reduce them through performance optimisation. The result is carbon-neutral websites whose CO₂ footprint has been precisely calculated, reduced and offset.

The system boundaries for the calculation in the methodology include the following building blocks:

● Energy consumed by a user's device while visiting the website.

● Energy consumed by the transmission of data.

● Energy consumed by hosting a website in a data centre.

The calculation leverages data from recent studies, as well as anonymised average data from Ryte's customers. The database with specific emission factors is provided by ClimatePartner. By compensating for the emissions that cannot be further avoided or reduced via certified carbon offset projects, customers can receive the label "climate neutral website”. The associated ID tracking by ClimatePartner makes it possible to transparently show which measures and climate action technologies have been used to implement the projects.

Tristan A. Foerster, Co-CEO of ClimatePartner has said: "Both Ryte and ClimatePartner see themselves as innovation leaders in their fields. They each draw on many years of experience and know-how in the areas of performance optimisation of digital applications and CO₂ balancing. So this collaboration brings together the best of both worlds."

Andreas Bruckschlögl, CEO and Co-Founder of Ryte: "Climate action has never been more important. We are aware of our responsibility as players in the digital economy and want to make our contribution to reducing CO₂ emissions through the cooperation with ClimatePartner and the launch of the Ryte Website Carbon KPIs. From now on, Ryte´s customers can accurately measure the CO₂ emissions of their websites, reduce them and offset the unavoidable emissions."

About Ryte
Ryte is an award-winning SaaS company headquartered in Munich, Germany, and one of the fastest growing technology companies in Europe. Ryte helps businesses and agencies optimise their website user experience with its state-of-the-art software products.

The Ryte Suite, loved by more than one million digital marketers and agencies worldwide, provides users with the three essential tools needed to create a more sustainable website: Website Success, Content Success, and Search Success. BotLogs is an innovative alternative to log file analysis, giving SEOs a solution for easy, daily, real-time bot analysis.

Some of the world’s most renowned companies, like Daimler, Allianz, and Sixt, trust in the Ryte technology to reach their website’s full potential. For more information, visit ryte.com.

Contact Ryte GmbH
Alexander Handcock, Head of Growth Marketing
a.handcock@ryte.com