Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.
- William Ruckelshaus
Similar to how our environment is being exploited by every individual, the digital marketplace is evolving each day and producing the huge amount of trash. The presence of the digital carbon emission is generated thru the smartphones, computers, tablets and other electronic gadgets where every individual accessing these resources of the digital world are at fault.
CO2e plays the primary part in the global climate change. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we individuals as part of the world needs to take actions and act urgently to reduce the emissions. But how this responsibility is shared between regions, and individuals has been an endless point of contention in international discussions.
0.3g CO2e - The average carbon footprint generated per email
According to the Mike Berners-Lee, an emissions researcher and the writer on the carbon footprints, in one of his books - "The Carbon Footprint of Everything", mentioned how a simple email produces a footprint of 0.3g CO2e while long emails may produce higher than 50g CO2 emissions. The large part of these emissions occurs from the devices used, networks and the data centers which helps in sending and storing these digital mails, while a small part of it is occurred through the electricity use.
Each year, around 4 to 40kgs of CO2 emissions are generated through emails by an average person, which is equivalent to driving a hatchback car for nearly 200kms. Analyzing at the average based on the emails, the individual contribution towards the global emissions might look small, but when viewed across the globe having an userbase of approximately 4 billion email users, and that it holds a sizable portion in the overall carbon emission produced per year. The emission value per year stands at 34 billon tonnes of CO2e today compared to 6 billion tonnes of CO2 emission produced during the mid-20th century.
Email - Is it a problem?
In the overall global carbon emissions, there are for sure bigger contributors than the emails where individuals are collectively responsible either directly or indirectly. But when it is drilled down to the emails, the user has to take up the responsibility of being vigilant and to decide under what circumstances the email has to be sent, so, there would be an easy win in reducing the carbon emissions. And now before you hit 'Send' - think about the environment and the carbon footprint it produces.
Anneli Ohvril, CEO, Let's do it - world cleanup, said, “If each British adult would abstain from sending out a “Thank you” email, we would conserve more than 16 000 tons of CO2 per year - equal to 81,000 flights from London to Madrid". So, think if all the emails we send is necessary?
How to reduce the email footprint?
Ever thought how an in-person meetings at the office would make a significant impact in reducing the footprints and can be a major driver for replacing the emails? Think about the impact it would create.
If the emailing is part of the process of your work, then keep an eye on the ways to reduce its carbon footprints:
Copy less people. Send email only to the required or concerned person to whom the context of the email has to be delivered and avoid copying unnecessary people.
Less emails. Remember every email has a cost, so, avoid sending until it is necessary and key decisions needs to be obtained.
Avoid attachments. Instead share the links to the documents as this would lessen the size of the email.
Delete email. Yes, this would ideally reduce the energy required in storing the email in the data center.
Unsubscribe. Cut down the unnecessary emails.
Whilst the carbon footprint of an email isn't huge, it's still a great illustration of the broader principle that cutting out the waste in our lives is good for our wellbeing and good for the environment.
Comments