About

Hi, I’m Michael

I’m a web developer, author and the founder of Sustainable WWW, a company in Sweden that designs and builds websites for businesses across Scandinavia. I’ve spent about ten years in tech, most of them at Initiva AB in Gothenburg. Today I split my time between client work, writing and speaking. I live in Odense, Denmark, but I carry an equally big heart for both Denmark and Sweden.

Michael Andersen sitting by a window, looking out — FIG. 1 — By the window

Background

It started in FrontPage

My journey in tech started long before anyone paid me for it. As a kid I spent hours in Microsoft FrontPage building hobby websites for friends and family. Later I moved on to WordPress and other tools, but the curiosity never went away. I just wanted to understand how things worked on the web.

When I moved to Gothenburg in my early twenties, I started taking programming seriously. Every night after work I studied frontend development: HTML, CSS, JavaScript and how browsers actually render a page. After about six months, I landed a job at Initiva AB as a frontend developer.

I worked at Initiva for close to seven years, alongside developers with twenty years of experience whom I could ask questions every single day. They taught me to care about quality and structure, and to do things properly even when nobody is watching. I built custom projects in .NET and C#, components for their Dynamix CMS, and later React applications from intranets and webshops to systems connected to industrial machines.

Where sustainability came in

Somewhere along the way I realised that sustainability connects directly to the work I do every day. Bloated code, unnecessary scripts and oversized images all cost energy to send and to run. The principles that make a website fast and efficient also reduce the data and processing it needs.^{Note 1} That was the spark behind Sustainable WWW.

It started as an organisation teaching sustainable web practices and grew into a company in Sweden that helps businesses across Scandinavia build lighter, faster websites. A more sustainable web, to me, is also a faster, more accessible and more inclusive web.

In 2023 I wrote my first book, Sustainable Web Design In 20 Lessons. I’m now writing The Slow Developer, about a more deliberate, thoughtful approach to building software. I also write weekly on Substack about my work and building a company from scratch.

I never stopped learning, and I never will. The way you build things says something about who you are.

The Stora Hamnkanalen canal in central Gothenburg, with the tower of the German Church — FIG. 2 — Gothenburg

1In practice that means page-weight budgets, fewer requests, modern image formats, system or subset fonts, minimal JavaScript and no third-party trackers.

Michael Andersen typing on a laptop at a desk — FIG. 3 — At work

Expertise

What I work on

Sustainable web design

Websites with a page-weight budget, few requests and no third-party trackers, on hosting providers that document their renewable electricity supply.
WCAG and accessibility

Inclusive experiences built to WCAG 2.2 AA, so everyone can use your content without barriers.
Performance and efficiency

Core Web Vitals, smaller bundles and lean architectures that do the job with less code.