Zero-Waste Workflows for Web Teams

How to implement sustainable development practices that reduce technical debt and improve team velocity while maintaining clean codebases.

In This Guide

Code Cleanup
Dependency Review
Automated Quality Gates
Reusable Architecture
Team Collaboration

1. Automated Code Cleanup

Pre-Commit Hooks

Implement lint-staged to automatically fix code style issues before commits. This ensures every change follows the same formatting standard.

Dead Code Detection

Use madge to visualize unused JavaScript files and ts-prune for TypeScript-specific dead code detection.


# Example .pre-commit-config.yaml
repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/typicode/eslint
    rev: v8.58.0
    hooks:
      - id: eslint
        stages: [commit]
        args: [--fix]

Pro Tip

Pair with eslint-plugin-unused to catch unused variables in real-time as developers write code.

2. Dependency Hygiene

Weekly Dependency Reviews

Schedule recurring standups to:

Audit package.json for deprecated packages
Remove devDependencies that were used in one-off projects
Compare current versions with @latest to identify outdated packages

Automated Reports

Use npm outdated and renovate to generate weekly reports showing:

• Number of security advisories
• Peer dependency conflicts
• Critical path update requirements

Manual Review Checklist

Are all dependencies still technically necessary?
Are there any duplicates with core functionality?
Can we replace any packages with custom implementations?

3. Quality Gate Automation

CI Pipeline Configuration

Implement automated quality gates that fail builds for:

Code coverage below 80%
New critical security advisories
Code smells from Stryker
Unused exports

Example Quality Gates

Linter Compliance

Ensure 100% rule compliance in the last merge

4. Reusable Asset Management

Reusable Components

Component Standardization

Create a core component library with strict contribution guidelines. Use jest and cypress for comprehensive testing.

Create a components/ directory structure with

[type]/[name]/[name].tsx

Styleguide

Maintain a living styleguide with storybook documenting:

• Base styles
• Accessibility standards
• Branding rules
• Component usage examples

5. Team Collaboration

Daily Tech Huddles

15-minute standups to discuss:

• Code health improvements
• Knowledge sharing
• Cross-team optimizations

Git Branch Policy

Implement rules for:

• Max branch age of 7 days
• Required pull request approvals

Code Review Checklist

Include automated and manual checks for:

• Linting compliance
• Test coverage
• Code simplicity

Bonus: Combine with a Code Kitchen - monthly workshop where the team reviews and improves the codebase together using the refurb library for automated refactorings.

Elivixa