In today’s climate, we all do what we can to be environmentally conscious.
You recycle, you’ve ditched single-use plastics, you take the bus, you’ve even switched to non-aerosol deodorant – perhaps to the dismay of others on the bus.
But did you know about the environmental impact of email, and that one of the easiest ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to delete old emails?
Why isn’t anyone talking about this?!
What is the Environmental Impact of Email?
Many people don’t realise that storing emails requires energy.
Every email you send, receive, or have sitting in your inbox is stored in a network of data centres that run continuously and require electricity to power and cool them, contributing to your email carbon footprint.
According to some estimates, such as those from The International Energy Agency (IEA), the global internet infrastructure, which supports everything from emails to social media platforms, accounts for about 2-3% of worldwide electricity consumption, a portion of which comes from fossil fuels, contributing to carbon emissions and climate change.
We are just as guilty as anyone of having emails in our inbox that we no longer need, and although one person’s deleted emails may seem insignificant, imagine the collective impact of millions of people cleaning up their inboxes.
The result would be a decrease in data storage demand, thereby reducing energy use and your email carbon footprint!
Emails containing attachments are the biggest carbon culprit.
Photos, documents, and videos take up more storage space on servers and consume more energy; the larger the attachment, the more energy it uses.
How to Reduce Your Email Carbon Footprint
Here are a few simple ways to reduce your digital clutter and email carbon footprint.
- Unsubscribe from unwanted emails. We all have them. You signed up for something a year ago to get that 10% off code and haven’t looked at any of them since – it’s time to say goodbye.
- Delete old emails regularly. Take 5 minutes out of your day once a month to delete emails you no longer need. You’ll feel productive, and the environment will be better for it; it’s a win-win.
- Clean out your sent folder. It’s easy to forget about emails in your sent folder, but they use just as much energy as the emails in your inbox.
- Organise your attachments. Download the ones you need, delete the ones you don’t. Easy peasy.
These simple actions can have a real, positive impact on the world we live in.
Start deleting today to reduce your email carbon footprint.
