The Rediscovery Centre

Building a super low-carbon impact website for the National Centre for the Circular Economy in Ireland.

Strategies for a Low-Carbon Website

The Rediscovery Centre is Ireland’s National Centre for the Circular Economy. Their old website however, was more energy intensive than it needed to be. The site was producing approximately 15 Kilos of CO2 a year – that’s the same weight as two car tires.

We redesigned it to be energy efficient. We concentrated on these seven points:

  1. Hosting
  2. Removing unnecessary functionality
  3. Limiting the number of images & video
  4. Employing system fonts whenever possible
  5. Incorporating darker colour schemes
  6. Streamlining the coding
  7. User Experience (less faffing about = less CO2)
Mobile version of the Rediscovery Centre homepage. It shows a line drawing illustration of the Boiler House in Ballymun.
A woman standing in front of a textured wall, holding a paint roller with a blue roller cover in one hand and a white paint bucket in the other. She is wearing an orange apron over a greenish-yellow sweater and has a friendly expression with a slight smile. The paint bucket has a logo on it that reads
A scene inside a bike repair shop. A man is working on a bicycle wheel, which he is holding in his hands. He is wearing orange gloves and is bent over, focusing on the wheel.

The Role of Visuals in a Low-Data Website

The Rediscovery Centre programs are focused on training, reconditioning, and upcycling furniture, bicycles, paint and clothing. They promote sustainable practices by training individuals while giving new life to discarded items.

A key element of the low data approach was to use photography judiciously and to use Illustrations where possible. Why illustrations? Besides looking great, their file size is a fraction of the size of a large image (like 2% the size).That and they scale up and down without losing any of their crispness. That and by using a consistent style, it lends a cohesion to the whole design. Everyones a winner.

Visit the website at: rediscoverycentre.ie

Line drawn illustration of a woman studying research pinned to a wall.
Screengrabs of the Social Enterprise page on mobile and desktop illustrating the responsive behaviour of the website to different viewport widths.
Line drawn illustration of a seamstress. The background is a vibrant orange colour. On the left side of the image, there is a silhouette of a woman standing with her hands on her hips. To her right, there is a black dressmaker's mannequin.
Two woman within a workshop either side of an old chair. They are working together using various tools and are in the process of refurbishing the chair.

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