A little while back I sat down with Michelle from Moxie CRM for a chat that covered a lot of ground – my winding path into web design, why your website has a bigger environmental footprint than you’d think, accessibility, and yes… whales.
The episode’s called “How to make your website faster, greener, and more accessible” and it’s now live on The Moxie Podcast. Here’s a taste of what we got into.
What we chatted about
- How I went from a completely different career path to becoming a sustainable web designer (it’s not a straight line, and that’s kind of the point)
- What a website’s carbon footprint actually is, and why it matters more than most business owners realise
- Practical, no-jargon ways to make your site more accessible and inclusive
- The story behind Whale Tail Digital’s name and brand (hint: it involves real whales)
- Why treating your website like an actual business asset – not a “set and forget” brochure – changes everything
A little taste of the convo
One of my favourite parts was talking through what a website’s carbon footprint actually is. It’s one of those things that sounds abstract until you realise every single page load pulls real electricity from a real data centre somewhere in the world. We got into some of the small, doable steps you can take to start shrinking that footprint – nothing overwhelming, just good first moves.
We also went down the whale rabbit hole (obviously). If you’ve ever wondered why a web design studio is named after a tail fluke, Michelle asked exactly the right questions to get the full story out of me – including how individual humpback whales get identified and why that became the perfect metaphor for branding.
I’m not going to spill all of it here though – that’s what the episode’s for!
Why I loved doing this one
Michelle and I go back a couple of years now – since not long after I started using Moxie, actually. She even hired me to build out the Moxie templates she uses in her own account for demos and training. So we’d swapped plenty of emails, but this was the first time we’d actually chatted face-to-face (well, screen-to-screen).
And honestly? It felt like we’d done it a hundred times before. Some of that’s down to Michelle being a genuinely brilliant host, but a lot of it is just… her. She’s warm, approachable, and one of those people who makes you feel instantly at ease – plain awesome, really.
Getting to talk sustainability and accessibility with someone I already trust, on a platform outside my own little corner of the internet, is exactly the kind of thing I want more of this year. It’s not just about being seen – it’s about more people realising that a website can be fast, beautiful, functional and better for the planet, without any of it being a trade-off.
Give it a listen
Pop it on during your next dog walk, commute, or studio clean-up sesh:
Would love to know what resonates most with you – flick me a message if something from the episode sparks a question!