We might think nothing of firing a quick reply into the ether, but behind every email is a vast infrastructure of data centres, networks and servers – which all consume enormous amounts of energy. Whether it’s a simple internet search or a longer video download, each activity we perform online has a cost to the planet.
Our emails and internet activities are brokered by data centres, through which vast amounts of data are transferred across the internet. These data centres require electricity and also energy to cool them, creating carbon emissions.
What’s the carbon footprint of sending an email?
Mike Berners-Lee, a fellow at Lancaster University, researches carbon footprints. In his book How Bad Are Bananas?, he states that the carbon footprint of an email varies dramatically, depending on its contents. A spam email has a carbon footprint of 0.3g of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent, the standard unit for measuring the climate impact of all greenhouse gases), while a regular email can yield 4g CO2e, and 50g for an email with a photo or significant attachment. These statistics were calculated over a decade ago, and, in fact, the impact of emailing may have increased since then. Based on those figures, some people have estimated that their own emails will generate 1.6kg CO2e in a single day.
So while the carbon footprint of an email isn’t enormous, it’s part of a bigger puzzle that all contribute to carbon generation and emissions.
How can we minimise our digital carbon footprints?
Cutting down the number of emails we send will make an impact on our digital carbon footprint. Reducing niceties might be a good place to start, however rude you feel by doing so. If every adult in the UK sent one less “thank you” email, it could save 16,433 tonnes of carbon a year, according to the energy company, OVO. This would be the equivalent of taking 3,334 diesel cars off the road, or taking 81,152 flights to Madrid.
Cutting out waste is a useful part of life, and so is cutting out digital waste. Rather than sending email attachments, send links to documents. And something we all need to do more of is: unsubscribe from email newsletters you don’t read. We all receive unwanted emails every day, and they’re all contributing to climate emissions.
Is it more environmentally friendly to send a message than an email?
An SMS text message is perhaps the most environmentally friendly way of contacting someone, with each text generating just 0.014g CO2e.
Messages sent via WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger are estimated to be only slightly less carbon intensive than email – but, similarly, it depends what you’re sending. GIFs, emojis and images have a greater footprint than text. GIFs are more carbon intensive than emojis, however, which are stored locally on your device, whereas gifs have to be downloaded from data centres.
Top image: The original Scientific Data and Computing Center (SDCC), formerly known as the RHIC and ATLAS Computing Facility (credit: rawpixel via Flickr)
