Digital meetings, webinars and other events are booming these days; mainly due to the covid19 pandemic. The internet as a whole is now estimated to produce 2% of all global emissions. The digital world is causing pollution that we may not have aware before.
With the online community growing steadily, our internet habit is not as clean as we think. According to the latest research, the most energy intensive habit we as individual can do online is to stream, with Youtube, Netflix using huge amount of energy burned from fossil fuels. Did you know that the internet use more than 10% of the world’s electricity ? Even more, most of the electricity in the world still comes from non-renewable resources, like burning coals and fossil fuels.
Just being conscious of this fact is a great start on how as individual we can lessen and delete our online carbon footprint. Here are few easy tips for more sustainable internet habit :
1. Unsubscribe and delete all newsletter, promotional and spams emails that you dont need / want anymore 2. Design and format files to make it smaller. Big file size will need more energy 3. Switch off "reply all" when sending an email
STORAGE
1. Choose greener Digital product & services especially for data storage
2. Regularly clean your cloud and delete unnecessary files / photos - transferring to a USB stick or external hard disk to save electricity and privacy
3. Install an ad blocker
STREAMING
1. Stream less whenever possible 2. stream audio over video 3. Download episodes of shows/music you will listen more than once 4. Don't get sucked in - put hard stop on yourself as most videos are results of its algorithm
The environmental problems not only comes from our digital habits (browsing, streaming, and sending emails) but also from the gadget/device productions. Find out more here
Every small action counts !
Comment below with any tips, habits or info on how we can delete our own digital carbon footprint and be an advocate for sustainability through our own work !
