sustainableTech

Permaculture asks us to practise People Care and Earth Care and Fair Share. Those ethical principles apply to our digital spaces, too. A website is often someone’s first encounter with an organisation. What happens when they arrive should reflect the values we teach.

While revisiting the website research behind my book Digitale Permaculture, I also examined what permaculture websites load during a first visit. Two patterns stood out.

For my book Digital Permaculture, I examined websites run by permaculture organisations in 2023. How much data does a page load transfer, and what might that mean for its carbon footprint? I collected the figures by hand, then repeated the exercise in 2025 for a presentation for the Permaculture Association Britain. In October 2026, I looked at 32 organisations again; 27 websites could be measured.