How is this calculated?
This converter uses the latest and greatest from CO2.js; an open-source JavaScript library that enables developers to estimate the emissions related to use of their apps, websites, and software.
More specifically we use the default Sustainable Web Design (SWD) model to estimate these emissions from transfer size in bytes.
We've made a few tweaks though - rather than relying on statically set grid intensities we use live grid data from as many countries as possible and fallback to the statically set ones if we don't have any fresh data. This is the same calculation EcoPing uses on all of our plans.
SWD estimates emissions by breaking down website carbon emissions into four areas:
- Consumer device use: end users interacting with a product or service. This accounts for an estimated 52% of the system. Returning visitors are assumed to be 25%, loading 2% of data.
- Network use: data transferred across the network. This accounts for an estimated 14% of the system.
- Data center use: energy required to house and serve data. This accounts for an estimated 15% of the system.
- Hardware production: embodied energy used in the creation of embedded chips, use of data centers, use of networks, and the use of consumer communication devices. This accounts for an estimated 19% of the system.Â