Cultural Benchmark Website Sustainability Benchmark Report 2025

We already know that websites have a carbon footprint. We also know that cultural organisations – and your audiences – care about the climate emergency.

But without a way of assessing the carbon footprint of cultural websites, it’s hard to know how we can reduce the negative environmental impact. And if it's even worth trying!

So, earlier this year in collaboration with Digital Carbon Online, we measured the carbon footprints of 66 cultural websites over 3 months. 

Using the data collected from nearly 9 million page views we created a first-of-its-kind report to help cultural organisations better understand – and reduce – the carbon footprint of their websites.

Here's a top-level overview of what we discovered about cultural sector websites. And how we can all be part of positive change.

How much of an impact do cultural websites really have?

The combined carbon footprint of the 66 websites we tracked over 3 months was 9,463kg CO2e. That's almost 9.5 tonnes of carbon emissions. Over just 3 months. 

To give you some context, that’s equivalent to:

• 10 flights from London to New York
• 769 hours of driving a car
• Making 425,000 cups of tea

Source: Clever Carbon

Why is this important?

When you consider all of the cultural organisations with a website, all over the UK, over just a small amount of time that adds-up to a significant impact. Which suggests it's something we should be addressing, both as individual organisations and at a sector-wide level. 

As well doing your bit for the planet, there are potential business benefits to understanding – and reducing – your website’s carbon footprint:

Brand reputation

Your website’s carbon footprint is part of your organisation’s sustainability story. So, understanding – and taking action to decrease – the carbon footprint of your website isn’t important solely for the environment. It’s also important for your brand. Because it’s important to your audiences.

Fundraising opportunities

If you can demonstrate how you’re reducing the carbon footprint of your website, there are potentially more funding opportunities available to you.

Large Trusts and Foundations and national Arts Councils are prioritising sustainability. Positive steps in reducing website sustainability is something you can easily report on – if you're measuring it!

A focus on sustainablility may also appeal to corporate supporters, who understand the business imperative of being more mindful of the environment.

And it may well help with individual giving too. According to Indigo’s Act Green Report 2024, 37% of cultural audiences said they would be more likely to donate to an organisation that clearly places great importance on environmental sustainability. And those micro-donations not only add-up over time, they also help to build legacy donors.

Key findings

Despite awareness about digital sustainability and a willingness to improve within the cultural sector, website-wise we don’t (currently) do much better than other sectors in terms of website carbon footprints. Why is that?

Partly, it’s about time. More specifically a lack of it. Hard-pressed teams don’t always have time to understand what they can do to improve their website. 

And even when you do understand, finding the time – and potentially getting approval – to make changes can prove tricky. But it's not impossible. And it’s why we share things like this report – to at least save you the job of working out what practical action you can take.

As well as lack of time, it’s a matter of content. Homepages and What’s On event listings accounted for the majority of page views (with ‘Visit’ the next most popular for venue websites).

Sustainability-wise, this is key because those are the pages which most often house ‘rich content’. That is images and video, which are particularly energy-hungry. Lots of people viewing your most energy-hungry content? That's a carbon footprint double-whammy!

What can you do about it?

1. Measure

We've shared several ways you can approach this in the full report.

2. Audit your website content

Not as scary as it might sound! This can be done in short stints, so you don't need to find a big chunk of time to take the first steps:

• Delete content that’s not needed
• Delete old images from the website and from your content management system
• Combine content onto fewer pages

🌟 BONUS: Streamlining your content is not only likely to be better for the environment, but also for website users. They won’t have to wade through out-of-date content. And it might even make your website faster. All the wins.

3. Rethink your use of video and images

We’re not advocating removing all images and video from your website. But we would encourage you to be mindful of how much of this content you’re uploading. Some helpful pointers for rethinking your image and video use without negatively impacting engagement:

• Track engagement
• Only use image and video where necessary
• Remember: less is more – one strong image beats a handful of okay ones
• Optimise files for the device they’re being shown on
• Consider ‘click to play’ rather than auto-playing video

We've shared some additional simple, practical, content-related tips in this article: Sustainable content creation tips

4. And finally – share your story

The more of us who talk about and share what we’re doing, the better. Not only does it help to give others ideas about what they can be doing to reduce their website’s carbon footprint, it also shows audiences that you’re taking action.

Huge thanks to everyone who took part in our survey – but an extra-special shout-out to the British Museum, Contact Theatre, Orchestras Live, and National Museums Scotland for sharing their stories as case studies in the report.

What’s next?

We have a couple of related Supercool Sessions webinars:

• Supercool Sessions #15 – How to make your website more sustainable
• And, coming up later this year, a conversational panel session – hear direct from your peers about their sustainability journey

We’ll also be publishing a series of articles which’ll provide a ‘deep dive’ into the case studies covered in the report.

And, here at Supercool, we're using the data to measure clients’ websites over time. 

This will help us to identify areas where we – and they – can make changes to reduce their website's negative environmental impact. Whilst, of course, remaining a flexible and effective tool for the team, and engaging and easy-to-use for audiences 🤓

Download the full report for FREE: 

Head over to our Cultural Website Sustainability Benchmark Report page