# Sustainability Audit of University Websites in Poland:
## 1 Introduction  
In the era of global challenges posed by climate change and efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, environmental attitudes are the responsibility of governmental institutions, the private sector, as well as academic institutions [1]. Universities meaningfully affectenvironmental attitudes and the promotion of sustainable development through their scientific and teaching activities [2]. Their teaching, research, and social and educational efforts shape mindsets and disseminate values and behavioural patterns that can either aid or hinder the implementation of sustainable development principles in society and the economy [3]. Therefore, how universities manage their assets and communicate with their environment reflects their actual commitment to sustainable development and affects their public confidence. As the primary communication channel for the academic community and the public, university websites should be both functional and environmentally friendly. Low-emission and sustainable approaches to web design and optimisation are growing more relevant in this regard [4]. They involve reducing the digital carbon footprint through means such as using hosting powered by renewable energy, optimising media files, minifying and optimising source code, and designing user interfaces that use minimal system and network resources [5; 6]. The effort to curb the environmental impact of websites can be perceived as a token of the university's dedication to sustainable development. This approach aligns with sustainable interaction design, sustainable web design, and green software engineering. These concepts provide a methodological framework for analysing sustainability-centred practices employed in designing and delivering digital services [7]. Although educational institutions pay heed to sustainable development and environmental problems, the area of university website emissions has yet to be properly investigated and diagnosed. The dominant issues in the literature include SEO, performance, and search engine results page positions. At the same time, the environmental impact of websites, particularly measured with carbon footprint, is considered relatively rarely, ignored, or insufficiently voiced [8; 9; 10; 11]. Although experts in the field discuss low-emission websites more frequently today, no in-depth research findings are available yet [12; 13]. There is not much insight into how universities--as institutions responsible for shaping environmental attitudes--employ sustainable digital design principles when creating and managing their websites. Furthermore, there are no benchmarking analyses available for comparing universities regarding website carbon footprint reduction practices and their commitment to minimising the environmental impact of digital communication. Both the state of the art and managerial practices in higher education institutions would benefit from addressing this research gap. Therefore, such results could contribute to the current knowledge on sustainable digital asset management and provide practical guidelines for universities seeking to align their communications and operational policies with sustainability principles in a responsible manner. Moreover, even though sustainable web design is gaining attention, there is no empirical research on carbon emissions from university websites, especially in the European context. Analyses to date have focused on the commercial sector or public administration, rarely taking into account the specificity of higher education [14; 15]. Additionally, international comparisons indicate that approaches to sustainable web design vary significantly by country; for example, Scandinavian countries and Germany introduce sustainable web design regulations and guidelines, which are not found in Poland [15; 16]. The present study addresses this gap, providing a CO2 emissions benchmark for public university websites in Poland and assessing their conformity with Green SEO and low-emission digital design principles.