Website Carbon Footprint Checker

Estimate the carbon footprint of any website by analyzing page weight, network requests, and green hosting status. This actor uses Puppeteer to fully render pages and measure actual data transfer, then calculates CO2 emissions per page view using the methodology from Website Carbon.

Features

• Measure actual page weight including all resources (JS, CSS, images, fonts)
• Calculate CO2 emissions per page view in grams
• Check green hosting status via the Green Web Foundation API
• Sustainability rating from A+ to F
• Resource breakdown by type (scripts, stylesheets, images, etc.)
• Accounts for returning visitor caching behavior

Use Cases

Web sustainability is an increasingly important concern for businesses tracking their ESG metrics. Developers use carbon footprint analysis to optimize page weight and reduce environmental impact. Marketing teams report on sustainability efforts as part of corporate responsibility. Agencies audit client websites for performance and sustainability, helping reduce both carbon emissions and hosting costs through optimization recommendations.

Input Configuration

Parameter	Type	Description
urls	Array	List of website URLs to analyze
includeGreenCheck	Boolean	Check green hosting via Green Web Foundation (default: true)

Output Format

Each result contains:

• url / domain / title - Page identification
• pageSizeBytes / pageSizeMB - Total page weight
• co2PerViewGrams - Estimated CO2 per page view in grams
• co2PerThousandViews - CO2 per 1,000 views in grams
• rating - Sustainability grade from A+ to F
• greenHosting - Whether the domain uses green/renewable energy hosting
• totalRequests - Total number of network requests
• resourceBreakdown - Size breakdown by resource type

Methodology

The CO2 calculation uses the standard methodology: 0.81 kWh per GB transferred at 442g CO2 per kWh average grid intensity. The model accounts for 75% returning visitors who benefit from browser caching. Green hosted sites receive a 9% CO2 reduction factor for renewable energy use.

Integration

Schedule regular sustainability audits using Apify scheduling. Export results via the Apify API to feed into ESG dashboards or CI/CD pipelines that track page weight budgets.

Limitations

Carbon estimates are approximations based on data transfer. Actual emissions depend on many factors including server location, CDN usage, and visitor geography. The Green Web Foundation database may not cover all hosting providers. Results measure initial page load only and do not account for subsequent user interactions.