[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":446},["ShallowReactive",2],{"testimonials":3,"content-query-CsKlHivj9Z":10,"content-query-OIvoqpZmkH":107},[4],{"name":5,"function":6,"organisation":7,"avatar":8,"testimonial":9},"Dionne Gantzert","Organiser","SNiC","/images/events/2411-snic/dionne-gantzert-avatar.jpeg","Emiel’s keynote on the Hidden Impact of Developers was truly inspiring, as he shared his personal journey toward creating more sustainable web solutions. His practical insights and passion for sustainability and IT motivated the students to rethink their approach to IT and empowered them to make a positive difference in the tech world!",[11,53],{"_path":12,"_dir":13,"_draft":14,"_partial":14,"_locale":15,"title":16,"description":17,"image":18,"talk":19,"organisation":20,"name":16,"theme":21,"location":22,"date":23,"website":24,"body":25,"_type":47,"_id":48,"_source":49,"_file":50,"_stem":51,"_extension":52},"/en/events/2025-12-16-enexis","events",false,"","Enexis Inspirationlunch","At Enexis Emiel presented his findings on the energyuse of AI in relation to sustainability, souvereignty and energy efficiency.","/images/events/2512-enexis/Enexis-Beyond-Vibing.jpg","2025-beyond-vibing-designing-ai-that-doesnt-drain-the-grid","Enexis Group","Sustainable AI","Enexis, 's Hertogenbosch","2025-12-16","https://www.enexis.nl/",{"type":26,"children":27,"toc":43},"root",[28,37],{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":31,"children":33},"element","h2",{"id":32},"about-the-event",[34],{"type":35,"value":36},"text","About the event",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":39,"children":40},"p",{},[41],{"type":35,"value":42},"Enexis organises inspirationlunches for colleagues to share knowledge and inspiration in an informal setting.",{"title":15,"searchDepth":44,"depth":44,"links":45},2,[46],{"id":32,"depth":44,"text":36},"markdown","content:en:events:2025-12-16-enexis.md","content","en/events/2025-12-16-enexis.md","en/events/2025-12-16-enexis","md",{"_path":54,"_dir":13,"_draft":14,"_partial":14,"_locale":15,"title":55,"description":56,"image":57,"talk":58,"organisation":59,"name":60,"theme":61,"location":62,"date":63,"website":64,"testimonial":65,"body":66,"_type":47,"_id":104,"_source":49,"_file":105,"_stem":106,"_extension":52},"/en/events/2024-11-27-snic-sustainabilit","SNiC SustainabilIT","Emiel was the closing keynote speaker in a packed Spant! in Bussum in front of 800 students attending SNiC.","/images/events/2411-snic/SNiC-Sustainable-IT-header.jpg","2024-the-hidden-impact-of-developers","Stichting Nationaal Informatica Congres (SNiC)","SustainabilIT","Sustainable IT","Spant!, Bussum","2024-11-27","https://sustainabilit.snic.nl/",{"name":5,"function":6,"organisation":7,"avatar":8,"testimonial":9},{"type":26,"children":67,"toc":99},[68,72,77,83,88,94],{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":69,"children":70},{"id":32},[71],{"type":35,"value":36},{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":73,"children":74},{},[75],{"type":35,"value":76},"SNiC is the largest national Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence conference, organized for and by students. This edition's theme of the conference is SustainabilIT, where we focus on what the IT sector can do and has done when it comes to sustainable technology. We focus on the technology of the past, the technology of today and the technology of the future.",{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":78,"children":80},{"id":79},"about-snic",[81],{"type":35,"value":82},"About SNiC",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":84,"children":85},{},[86],{"type":35,"value":87},"SNiC is an acronym for Stichting Nationaal Informatica Congres (Foundation National Computer Science Conference). This organisation was established in 2004 with the purpose of stimulating interest in knowledge of information and communication technology, and to promote contact between students and the business world. 9 study associations from 7 different cities are affiliated with SNiC. Every year, a conference with an IT-related subject is organised and for each conference, one of those 9 study associations is chosen to take care of the organisation. This year's SNiC was organised on November 27th, 2024 by students from via, the study association for Information Sciences at the University of Amsterdam.",{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":89,"children":91},{"id":90},"audience",[92],{"type":35,"value":93},"Audience",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":95,"children":96},{},[97],{"type":35,"value":98},"Visitors are enthusiastic Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence bachelor and master students from all over the country. Over the past years, the conference has grown considerably. Where in 2017 the conference was visited by 450 students, we expect around 850 visitors in 2024. Various talks were held at the conference by speakers from both the business world and the academic world. The students have been challenged to dive into a specific topic from different perspectives. We want to inspire them and invite them to think further than their current views.",{"title":15,"searchDepth":44,"depth":44,"links":100},[101,102,103],{"id":32,"depth":44,"text":36},{"id":79,"depth":44,"text":82},{"id":90,"depth":44,"text":93},"content:en:events:2024-11-27-snic-sustainabilit.md","en/events/2024-11-27-snic-sustainabilit.md","en/events/2024-11-27-snic-sustainabilit",[108,294],{"_path":109,"_dir":110,"_draft":14,"_partial":14,"_locale":15,"title":111,"description":112,"status":113,"image":114,"date":115,"head":116,"body":130,"_type":47,"_id":291,"_source":49,"_file":292,"_stem":293,"_extension":52},"/en/blog/rethinking-green-web-design","blog","Rethinking Green Web Design","My journey to a sustainable website started with a radical goal: minimize its carbon footprint at all costs. I succeeded, reducing emissions from 5 grams to just 0.06 grams of CO2 per pageview. But I realized that minimising to zero was not representative for real life projects. And even more: visitors needed more than plain text to connect with my content and mission.","PUBLISHED","/images/blog/rethinking-green-web-design/100-procent-green-web-design.jpg","2025-02-04",{"meta":117},[118,121,124,127],{"name":119,"content":120},"keywords","sustainable it, green it, green web design",{"name":122,"content":123},"robots","index, follow",{"name":125,"content":126},"author","Emiel Kwakkel",{"name":128,"content":129},"copyright","© 2026 Emiel Kwakkel",{"type":26,"children":131,"toc":284},[132,137,143,161,166,171,177,188,193,199,204,209,215,268,274,279],{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":133,"children":134},{},[135],{"type":35,"value":136},"The result? A redesigned website that balances sustainability with usability. While the footprint has increased slightly to 0.21 grams per pageview, the enhanced design now includes professional layouts, photos of my talks, and embedded event videos, all optimized for efficiency. Here’s how I approached this trade-off.",{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":138,"children":140},{"id":139},"the-most-sustainable-website",[141],{"type":35,"value":142},"The Most Sustainable Website",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":144,"children":145},{},[146,159],{"type":29,"tag":147,"props":148,"children":152},"a",{"href":149,"rel":150},"https://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html",[151],"nofollow",[153],{"type":29,"tag":154,"props":155,"children":158},"img",{"alt":156,"src":157},"World Wide Web first website","/images/blog/rethinking-green-web-design/first-website-w3.jpg",[],{"type":35,"value":160},"\nIf sustainability were the sole goal, the most eco-friendly website would be a HTML page with no images, no styling, just plain text with hyperlinks.",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":162,"children":163},{},[164],{"type":35,"value":165},"But here’s the catch: a website exists to communicate. Stripping away visual appeal and usability undermines the site’s purpose. My initial minimalist design aligned with sustainability goals but fell short in delivering value to visitors.",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":167,"children":168},{},[169],{"type":35,"value":170},"This dilemma reflects a broader reality in sustainable IT: efficiency must always balance with usability. Absolute minimalism in digital design might save a few grams of CO2 per pageview, but in the grand scheme of things, the impact is marginal compared to larger issues in the tech industry, such data center energy usage, use of scarse resources for device manufacturing and generative AI.",{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":172,"children":174},{"id":173},"designing-for-purpose-and-usability",[175],{"type":35,"value":176},"Designing for Purpose and Usability",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":178,"children":179},{},[180,186],{"type":29,"tag":154,"props":181,"children":185},{"alt":182,"src":183,"float":184},"Updated website","/images/blog/rethinking-green-web-design/updated-website.jpg","right",[],{"type":35,"value":187},"\nWhile updating my website, I focused on finding a middle ground. The new design embraces modern web standards while keeping performance at the forefront. Here’s what changed:",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":189,"children":190},{},[191],{"type":35,"value":192},"The updated site includes sections for photos of my talks, presentations, and embedded YouTube videos of event recordings. These elements are optimized, ensuring they load efficiently. I use formats like WebP for images and embed YouTube videos in a way that defers loading until a user interacts with them. The redesign also included accessibility improvements, ensuring that users with different needs can navigate and interact with the site.",{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":194,"children":196},{"id":195},"the-trade-off-from-006-to-021-grams",[197],{"type":35,"value":198},"The Trade-Off: From 0.06 to 0.21 Grams",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":200,"children":201},{},[202],{"type":35,"value":203},"Yes, the new design has increased the carbon footprint of my website—from 0.06 grams to 0.21 grams per pageview. At first glance, this might seem like a step backward, but in the broader context, this increase is negligible.",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":205,"children":206},{},[207],{"type":35,"value":208},"What matters is the potential for greater impact. The updated design makes my content more engaging and shareable, which I hope will help amplify the message of sustainable IT practices. The additional CO2 emissions are outweighed by the potential to inspire others to adopt eco-friendly principles in their own digital projects.",{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":210,"children":212},{"id":211},"lessons-learned",[213],{"type":35,"value":214},"Lessons Learned",{"type":29,"tag":216,"props":217,"children":218},"columns",{},[219],{"type":29,"tag":220,"props":221,"children":222},"ul",{},[223,240,254],{"type":29,"tag":224,"props":225,"children":226},"li",{},[227,234,238],{"type":29,"tag":228,"props":229,"children":231},"h3",{"id":230},"balance-is-key",[232],{"type":35,"value":233},"Balance is key:",{"type":29,"tag":154,"props":235,"children":237},{"alt":236,"src":183},"Alt",[],{"type":35,"value":239},"\nSustainability isn’t about perfection, it’s about making thoughtful trade-offs. A balance between efficiency and usability often achieves the best results.",{"type":29,"tag":224,"props":241,"children":242},{},[243,249,252],{"type":29,"tag":228,"props":244,"children":246},{"id":245},"impact-over-perfection",[247],{"type":35,"value":248},"Impact over perfection:",{"type":29,"tag":154,"props":250,"children":251},{"alt":236,"src":183},[],{"type":35,"value":253},"\nThe goal of reducing emissions shouldn’t compromise a site’s ability to fulfill its purpose. A slightly higher carbon footprint is acceptable if it helps spread a valuable message.",{"type":29,"tag":224,"props":255,"children":256},{},[257,263,266],{"type":29,"tag":228,"props":258,"children":260},{"id":259},"optimization-matters",[261],{"type":35,"value":262},"Optimization matters:",{"type":29,"tag":154,"props":264,"children":265},{"alt":236,"src":183},[],{"type":35,"value":267},"\nEven with added media, there are ways to keep a website efficient. Compressing images, deferring non-essential scripts, and using green hosting providers are all steps in the right direction.",{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":269,"children":271},{"id":270},"final-thoughts",[272],{"type":35,"value":273},"Final Thoughts",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":275,"children":276},{},[277],{"type":35,"value":278},"Sustainability in web design is about more than just cutting emissions; it’s about creating digital experiences that are both responsible and impactful. My updated website may not be as lightweight as its earlier version, but it’s far more effective in sharing the message of sustainable IT practices.",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":280,"children":281},{},[282],{"type":35,"value":283},"As you think about your own projects, remember that the most sustainable choice isn’t always the simplest or most minimalistic one. Instead, aim for solutions that balance efficiency with purpose, because, ultimately, the greenest website is one that inspires action.",{"title":15,"searchDepth":44,"depth":44,"links":285},[286,287,288,289,290],{"id":139,"depth":44,"text":142},{"id":173,"depth":44,"text":176},{"id":195,"depth":44,"text":198},{"id":211,"depth":44,"text":214},{"id":270,"depth":44,"text":273},"content:en:blog:rethinking-green-web-design.md","en/blog/rethinking-green-web-design.md","en/blog/rethinking-green-web-design",{"_path":295,"_dir":110,"_draft":14,"_partial":14,"_locale":15,"title":296,"description":297,"status":113,"image":298,"date":299,"head":300,"body":307,"_type":47,"_id":443,"_source":49,"_file":444,"_stem":445,"_extension":52},"/en/blog/sustainable-choices","Sustainable Frontend Development","There is an app for that! IT as the solution to every problem. This is the mindset that drives developers who live for making an impact to get up every day with fresh energy. When looking at sustainability, this leads to IT for Good, Green IT, and the all-encompassing Sustainable IT","/images/talks/24-hidden-impact/the-hidden-impact-of-developers.jpg","2022-09-10",{"meta":301},[302,304,305,306],{"name":119,"content":303},"sustainability",{"name":122,"content":123},{"name":125,"content":126},{"name":128,"content":129},{"type":26,"children":308,"toc":438},[309,315,320,325,333,338,343,348,353,358,368,380,385,391,396,401,409,414,419,424],{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":310,"children":312},{"id":311},"how-to-make-concious-choices",[313],{"type":35,"value":314},"How to Make concious choices?",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":316,"children":317},{},[318],{"type":35,"value":319},"At the same time, the energy consumption of digital technologies increases significantly every year. Decisions made during development are often unknowingly a major influence on energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and the use of scarce resources.",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":321,"children":322},{},[323],{"type":35,"value":324},"Years ago, I developed my personal website, emielkwakkel.nl, using Angular and Bootstrap. Slightly over-engineered, but how much emissions could a small personal website cause? Recently, I was shocked by the results from websitecarbon.com, a tool that estimates the carbon footprint of your website based on various factors. My site turned out to be more polluting than 93% of tested websites, emitting five grams of CO2 per page view. Ten thousand page views equated to the energy consumption needed to drive an electric car 9,000 kilometers—that’s a round trip to Greece, twice!",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":326,"children":327},{},[328],{"type":29,"tag":154,"props":329,"children":332},{"alt":330,"src":331},"First version of emielkwakkel.nl","/images/blog/sustainable-choices/emielkwakkel-nl-old.png",[],{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":334,"children":335},{},[336],{"type":35,"value":337},"Now, I don’t have illusions of thousands of visitors to my personal website. But I do build front-end applications for banks, insurers, and governments, handling millions of page views and heavy usage. What impact do my choices make there? And does the architecture account for best practices?",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":339,"children":340},{},[341],{"type":35,"value":342},"Sustainability has always been important to me. Yet, until recently, I unconsciously hadn’t included it as a strict non-functional requirement. When setting up my server, I focused on scalability, performance, and redundancy. But critically speaking, how many cores do a few small Node-based websites really need? And is a cloud backup of a standard server instance necessary when all the source code is on GitHub?",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":344,"children":345},{},[346],{"type":35,"value":347},"Time for a change: a new lightweight VPS proved equally capable of serving my site quickly and resulted in monthly savings of 24 euros. I also revamped my website.",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":349,"children":350},{},[351],{"type":35,"value":352},"Disclaimer: the main takeaway here is the importance of choosing the right architecture based on the use case and avoiding emissions from over-engineering. The combination of Angular, a Single Page Application, and Bootstrap can be a sustainable choice for a dynamic enterprise application, provided it’s optimized.",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":354,"children":355},{},[356],{"type":35,"value":357},"For my personal website, I opted for Vue 3 and Nuxt 3 with Static Site Generation (SSG) and Tailwind for styling. The updated Vue Virtual DOM allows for faster rendering and reduced memory usage. Paired with Nuxt, the framework becomes largely tree-shakable, reducing bundle sizes. Tailwind’s utility classes enable custom styling without the overhead of unused components.",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":359,"children":360},{},[361,363],{"type":35,"value":362},"Styling also impacts an application’s energy consumption. Did you know that dark mode significantly reduces energy usage? In the early 2000s, during the era of CRT monitors, Google turned its website black for Earth Day. With the shift to LCD screens (single backlight, always on), the advantage disappeared. But with the rise of OLED screens, dark mode is making a comeback. Research by Google found that Google Maps in dark mode on mobile devices used up to 63% less energy for the display. A win-win for every developer who loves dark mode!\n",{"type":29,"tag":154,"props":364,"children":367},{"alt":365,"src":366},"Current draw in mA","/images/blog/sustainable-choices/colour-energy-usage.png",[],{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":369,"children":370},{},[371,373],{"type":35,"value":372},"Source: ",{"type":29,"tag":147,"props":374,"children":377},{"href":375,"rel":376},"https://www.wholegraindigital.com/blog/dark-colour-web-design/",[151],[378],{"type":35,"value":379},"Wholegrain Digital",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":381,"children":382},{},[383],{"type":35,"value":384},"With the new website live, it was time for another scan with websitecarbon.com. The five grams of CO2 per page view has been reduced to 0.06 grams, and 10,000 page views now equate to a car trip of just 112 kilometers! Thanks to the reduced bundle size combined with Static Site Generation, load times have improved. The GitHub workflow deploys the site to production in one minute, and server costs have decreased by 500%.",{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":386,"children":388},{"id":387},"new-challenges",[389],{"type":35,"value":390},"New challenges",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":392,"children":393},{},[394],{"type":35,"value":395},"As the scale of the project increases, so do the challenges. On the development side, the number of tests grows rapidly. Combined with additional quality gates, linting, and more extensive deployment scripting, pipeline lead times increase. Both a micro-frontend and monorepository architecture can help here. The goal is to automate the impact assessment of a change. Based on the dependency tree, only the tests, builds, and deployments affected by the change are executed.",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":397,"children":398},{},[399],{"type":35,"value":400},"An example of such an approach is the KickstartGreen application, built for a fictional bank that helps clients plant trees alongside banking. The architecture is described as an Angular monorepository with NX, divided into projects following Manfred Steyer’s Domain-Driven Design principles. This setup allows for zooming in on the application, domain, and library levels. An affected analysis highlights the libraries within the application impacted by a change.",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":402,"children":403},{},[404],{"type":29,"tag":154,"props":405,"children":408},{"alt":406,"src":407},"KickstartGreen Dependency Graph in kaart gebracht met NX","/images/blog/sustainable-choices/kickstartgreen-nx.png",[],{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":410,"children":411},{},[412],{"type":35,"value":413},"When splitting the application into domains and libraries, careful thought is required about hierarchy. Dependencies should only flow downward. For instance, if a utility library imports an application, any change to that utility would mark the entire application and all its packages as affected.",{"type":29,"tag":30,"props":415,"children":416},{"id":270},[417],{"type":35,"value":418},"Final thoughts",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":420,"children":421},{},[422],{"type":35,"value":423},"The list of possible optimizations is too long for this article. Ultimately, raising awareness and making sustainability a hard requirement is the only way to make balanced and measurable choices. Does your organization lack strict sustainability goals? Then consider how a sustainable proposal can also save costs, improve maintainability, or shorten time-to-market. A win-win!",{"type":29,"tag":38,"props":425,"children":426},{},[427,429,436],{"type":35,"value":428},"All projects mentioned in this article are available on my ",{"type":29,"tag":147,"props":430,"children":433},{"href":431,"rel":432},"https://github.com/emielkwakkel",[151],[434],{"type":35,"value":435},"personal GitHub",{"type":35,"value":437},".",{"title":15,"searchDepth":44,"depth":44,"links":439},[440,441,442],{"id":311,"depth":44,"text":314},{"id":387,"depth":44,"text":390},{"id":270,"depth":44,"text":418},"content:en:blog:sustainable-choices.md","en/blog/sustainable-choices.md","en/blog/sustainable-choices",1782672900498]