In this paper, the aim is to research green coding and sustainability within web development. Can environmentally friendly web development make a difference in climate change? In which ways can a web developer code green? And to what extent are programmers today aware of the phrase “green coding”? These are the key questions that will be discussed in the essay. The goal is to research the current recognition of environmentally friendly coding within the programming community. To give examples of eco-friendly development and research its relevance as a tool for combating climate change. The paper will attempt to answer if it has a significant enough effect on global emissions for society to care about, or explain why such a conclusion is difficult to ascertain. This study proceeded accordingly when answering the questions. Firstly, a survey was created with questions about green coding and eco-friendly development and then shared with a group of programmers. Secondly, previous studies were collected to see how well their research fit together and what conclusions can be drawn from it. Thirdly, information and data from statistics were collected together with test measurements in order to identify energy-efficient ways of coding and developing. The results from gathering and comparing sources of energy consumed from data being transferred show that it is difficult to calculate the impact eco-friendly development has on climate change. Some techniques and tools that are preferable when prioritizing energy efficiency are revealed. The results of the survey showed that there is some recognition of the phrase “green coding” among programmers but not widespread and that there is a minority of the respondents who think about saving energy when coding and choosing tools and techniques.

This study investigates the impact of sustainable design practices on the visual elements of websites, with a focus on their potential to mitigate environmental harm. The principal area of interest is efficiency - designing web pages to minimize energy usage.  In pursuit of sustainable design principles, websites from companies and organizations that advocate for the environment were analyzed. This was done to determine whether these websites are implementing sustainable design principles within their visual elements. Two custom React web pages were subsequently developed: one implementing design principles from the analyzed websites and the other integrating sustainable design principles. Standardized tools and metrics, including Ecograder, Google Lighthouse, and Google PageSpeed Insights, were used to assess the performance and energy efficiency of these pages in order to measure any discrepancies. From previous research, the results identified five most common design principles as principal considerations in website design. Interestingly, many of the companies/organizations were found to partially or completely disregard these sustainable design principles in their web pages. Additionally, the React web page that incorporated sustainable design principles demonstrated a significantly lighter page weight compared to its modern design counterpart, resulting in less energy usage. Further research is needed though to corroborate these results due to the limitations of the measurements in this study.