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eco-mode helps agencies measure and cut digital emissions, making public digital services greener and faster
Reducing website carbon emissions, one byte at a time
As Singapore accelerates its digitalisation agenda, the environmental impact of digital services is growing but often overlooked. Every website, application, and online service requires energy to host, transmit, and load, resulting in carbon emissions.
While significant strides have been made to reduce emissions from physical infrastructure such as buildings and transport, the carbon footprint of digital services remains largely invisible. Yet, as citizens increasingly rely on digital channels for public services, addressing digital emissions is essential to align with the and targets.
eco-mode aims to address this gap by making digital emissions visible and actionable, helping agencies lead by example in the public sector.
Government websites are essential and form the backbone of public service delivery. However, carbon emissions are generated every time citizens access them — through hosting servers, network transfers, and end-user devices.
The challenge is significant and escalating as Singapore is a highly digitalised society. As of January 2023, the internet penetration rate stood at 96.9%, with 5.81 million users online. Additionally, 97% of resident households have internet access, and smartphone ownership has reached 97%, reflecting widespread adoption of digital services across the population (, ). This underscores the urgent need to address the environmental impact of growing digital consumption in public services.
For example, a single webpage with government traffic (median ~5,500 visits per month — based on WOGAA 2024 stats) could generate up to 60 kg of CO₂e annually, equivalent to what three mature rain trees absorb in a year.
With thousands of such pages across Whole-of-Government (WOG), this represents a sizeable but addressable source of emissions — if measured and optimised.
Despite increased interest in sustainability, agencies face challenges:
eco-mode is a digital emissions assessment and optimisation tool tailored for government agencies to measure, monitor, and reduce their digital carbon footprint — in a way that aligns with public sector processes and sustainability goals.
eco-mode also generates compliance-aligned reports for internal tracking, leadership reporting, and public communication.
eco-mode uses two key engines to provide insights on digital emissions and recommend optimisation practices:
eco-mode also follows the — a leading green web emission estimation framework — with the following components in its calculation methodology:
Empowering Government Agencies to measure, monitor, and minimise Digital Services Carbon Footprint, raising awareness on the environmental impact of digital emissions.
Through engagements with IT Managers, Web Administrators, Business Users, and GovTech's Digital Sustainability Office, we identified that lack of visibility and practical tools are key gaps preventing action.
A tool that aligns with digital standards, highlights optimisation opportunities, and provides actionable insights will enable agencies to reduce emissions, meet compliance, and improve awareness across WOG.
While public web carbon calculators are widely available on the internet, eco-mode is uniquely designed for Singapore’s public sector to provide standardised, relevant, actionable, and aligned insights.
For Agencies and Web Administrators:
For Site Visitors:
Below is an example of trial results from pilot conducted with MSE, demonstrating the potential reduction in digital emissions through targeted optimisation:
Key Takeaway: By reducing webpage emissions from 0.90gCO₂e to 0.40gCO₂e per pageview, agencies could achieve a 55.56% reduction in emissions, equivalent to saving > 1,500 kgCO₂e over 4 years — roughly the same as what 78 mature rain trees would absorb during that time.
This finding from our trial with MSE is insightful, especially when we consider that Government Digital Services collectively serve over 1.2 billion site visits in 2024. The scale of digital emissions from public sector websites is therefore significant — but so are the opportunities for reduction.
To better understand the broader landscape, the team extended its analysis to all Government Digital Websites and uncovered substantial optimisation potential. Our research found that approximately 4 terabytes (4T KiB) of digital assets could be reduced through targeted improvements, including:
Furthermore, 66% of government websites are currently rated D to F in eco-mode’s preliminary assessments, indicating widespread opportunities for performance and emissions improvements. These findings highlight not only a sustainability imperative but also an opportunity to enhance user experience, website speed, and compliance with usability standards.
eco-mode is conceptualised by GovTech's Digital Sustainability Office and realised by a team of GovTechies who are passionate about sustainability, believe modern digital services can and should be sustainable for the future.
eco-monsters:
Estimated based on average webpage emissions of 0.91g CO₂e per pageview (using CO2.js and Sustainable Web Design Model v4), multiplied by 66,000 annual pageviews (from median 5,500 monthly pageviews for government websites from WOGAA CY24 statistics). Calculation: 0.91g × 66,000 ≈ 60 kg CO₂e annually per webpage.