I am one of them, otherwise this blog post wouldn’t be here.

You are one of them, otherwise you would not be reading this blog post.

Did you ever wonder about the impact your Google Searches, YouTube streaming, Netflix binge-watching, social media scrolling and continuous flow of e-mails has on our planet?

In other words, do you know how big the carbon footprint of the internet is?

The answer might surprise you.

We see the internet as something that has to do with ‘dematerialization’. For everything that is digital, we feel like we don’t need that many resources. So, we are actually helping the planet, right?

Well, not really. As it turns out, our collective online addiction is causing a lot of damage…

The internet is leaving a larger ecological footprint than we think – here’s why

In order to understand the carbon footprint of the internet, we need to look at both the production of everything needed to be connected to the world wide web as well as the energy necessary to power all our online activities.

First, let’s dive into the production of the devices that we use to be connected almost 24/7.

Smartphones, tablets, laptops, no matter the device you use, they all require raw materials, including copper, cobalt, gold and silver. 

These raw materials are extracted through mining, a process that comes with a high price tag.

There are social cost. The men, women and children that work in the mines are exposed to unsafe, often even deadly, working conditions.

And then there’s the environmental impact. Studies show that each smartphone requires 70 kilos of natural resources. Once you know that between 2007 and 2017, an estimated 7 billion smartphones were produced it isn’t that hard to imagine the – negative – impact of the electronics industry on our planet.

Planned obsolescence, forcing you to change your device every 2 to 3 years, makes it even worse. E-waste (which includes your discarded phones) is now the fastest growing waste stream on the planet. The world produces 50 million tonnes e-waste a year, weighing more than all of the commercial airliners ever made. Only 20% of this e-waste is formally recycled.

Besides the production of the device that you use to access the world wide web, the hours that you scroll, click, swipe and share make a significant impact. Here’s how that works.

How your TikTok creation impacts the ocean

Every time you send an e-mail, share your latest TikTok creation or click on “Next episode” for your favorite Netflix series, you put a data center to work. Data centers are giant buildings packed top to bottom with servers full of the websites, databases, online applications and files that make our ever increasing hunger for online activity possible.

All these servers need to be produced. And what about the network needed to transport all that data? The thousands of kilometers of internet cables at the bottom of the ocean. The network antennas. The optic fibers.

The production part of the equation might be the most tangible. After all, you are holding a device into your hand. Even right now, unless someone is reading this blog post to you. But although less visible, the second force behind the carbon footprint of the internet, isn’t less powerful.

How big is the impact of your binge-watching Sundays on the planet?

Data centers use electricity.

A lot.

Not only to power the servers 24 hours a day. Data server centers require power for the air conditioning to keep the servers from overheating. All this electricity is generated from different sources, including a large amount of fossil fuels.

In fact, if the internet were a country, it would be the sixth largest consumer of electricity on the planet, right behind Russia, Japan, China India and the US.

What’s the biggest driver of data demand?

Video streaming.

Video streaming demanded 63% of global internet traffic in 2015, and is projected to reach 80% this year. Netflix accounts for one-third of that traffic alone. However, the company scores a sad 17% on the “Click Clean Scorecard” of Greenpeace. That’s a a lot of unsustainable sources to bring Zac Efron, Floki or detective Ambrose into your living room.

I bet that’s not what you expected, right? I know I didn’t.

So what about the remaining part of the internet activities? It’s difficult, if not impossible, to calculate the complete carbon footprint of the internet.

That would mean analyzing every tweet, like, share, WhatsApp message, activities of “Internet-of-Things” devices, just to start. That’s not the purpose of this blog post.

It’s about creating awareness of the impact our digital behavior has. So I dove into the data of two everyday activities for many of us: Google searches and sending e-mails.

What is the carbon footprint of a Google Search?

An online search emits about 0.2 grams of CO2. You could perform 5.000 searches – almost 14 searches per day for an entire year – before you hit 1 kilo of CO2. That’s the equivalent of driving 4,46 kilometers in a (non-electric) car, according to calculations of MilieuCentraal.

Although the biggest search engine on the planet does not disclose how many searches it handles each year, estimations show it’s more than 2 trillion.

In CO2 terms, a year of Google Searches equals 1.785.720.000 kilometers driven in a (non-electric) car.  

What is the carbon footprint of an e-mail?

Each e-mail emits between 4 and 50 grams of CO2. It depends on how many people receive the e-mail, the length of the e-mail and the size of the attachment. Let’s take 10 grams as an average.

We send 269 billion e-mails send each DAY. That comes down to a whopping 2,69 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide. Or a little over 12 billion kilometers driven in a (non-electric) car. A day!

If you made it up to this part of the blog, it must be pretty clear that our online behavior is putting pressure on our planet. But don’t panic and unplug all your devices.

Not yet.

6 ways to lower the carbon footprint of the internet

By reading this article, you emitted an estimated 24 grams of CO2…

Now, you could click away from this article and take a walk outside in order to save the planet. 

I am not saying you shouldn’t.

But you could spend another 5 minutes to find out 6 easy ways that help you to reduce your internet carbon footprint. Trust me, the positive impact will be bigger than the additional 24 grams of CO2 you would put into the atmosphere. And that’s what matters, isn’t it?

The post The carbon footprint of the internet: our online addiction is destroying the planet appeared first on My Happy Footprint.

If you, just like me, believe that all small actions are helping to improve the world, then read on to find out 6 easy ways to help to reduce your internet carbon footprint.

1. Hold on to your devices a little while longer

With an average lifespan of about 2 years, we are switching smartphones at an incredible speed. And this is causing a lot of harm to the planet. An estimated 85-95% of the total carbon footprint of a smartphone comes from mining the raw materials to build a new one. In other words:

Buying one new phone takes as much energy as recharging and operating a smartphone for an entire decade

Even if you are stretching the upgrade to a new phone, tablet or laptop with 1 year, you could already make a significant impact on the Earth.

2. Demand the ‘right to repair’

How often have you bought a device that started to function poorly after a year or two?

All of a sudden the battery starts to drain, or the operating system no longer updates to the newest version.

And when you try to upgrade or repair the device, it’s either impossible or it comes at a cost almost higher than buying a new device.

The “Right to Repair” movement is fighting to make the repair of smartphones, tablets and laptops accessible, affordable and mainstream. You can raise your voice by signing their petition that pushes for legislation here.

3. Unsubscribe from irrelevant newsletters

I am terrible with newsletters. I sign up a lot. I guess out of fear to miss out on something. But then there are so many I never read. So, the company or person sending me those e-mails is spending electricity to send me that e-mail (and probably money too), while I just toss it into the trash without reading it. Over and over again.

Just take a minute to ask yourself:

Would I still be signed up for all those newsletters if they would be delivered in physical form to my door?

Probably not. So yes, an e-mail has a lower carbon footprint than a paper mail, but through the so-called the rebound effect you end up using more carbon instead of less. Every newsletter emits on average 10 grams of CO2. Just do the math.

I used CleanFox to manage my inbox. CleanFox is an app that lets you delete and/or unsubscribe from newsletters in a fast and easy way. It took me about 3 minutes after installing the app to delete and unsubscribe from 32 weekly newsletters that are send to my Hotmail account and that I never read anymore.

According to CleanFox cleaning my Hotmail should save me about 3.87 KG of CO2 per year. After adding my Gmail account I even reached 9.22 KG.

You can sign-up HERE for CleanFox. It’s free. 

As always, the best step to a better carbon footprint, is by REDUCING as much as possible. 

4. Urge Netflix to go green

Yes, the first step to a better carbon footprint, is by reducing. So, deleting Netflix altogether would make the biggest impact. But I understand that for many of us, that would be too radical. I do try to minimize the amount of hours I spend watching Netflix and try to read a book or go outside for a walk instead, but I also use Netflix as a source of inspiration. There are a lot of good documentaries on Netflix that I wouldn’t want to miss.

So, what can you do, besides reducing your streaming time? Urge Netflix to go green!

Greenpeace started in 2010 with their Click Clean campaign, where they encourage large internet companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook to make the switch to renewable energy.

Netflix is one of the heaviest consumers of energy, but unfortunately doesn’t seem to take that many steps to become green(er).

The company still largely depends on fossil fuels. Take a second to sign the petition of Greenpeace to convince Netflix to power your favorite show with clean energy and help to spread the word with #clickclean.

6. Use Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

Although Google according to Greenpeace seems to be ‘green’ in terms of the energy they use in their data center, there is a alternative to surf the web, a company with a different approach to green browsing: Ecosia. Ecosia a search engine that uses a large part of its profit to plant trees.

So far, Ecosia planted over 35 million trees!

On average, it takes 45 searches for them to plant 1 tree. Ecosia has a nice counter on their search engine. I did 43 searches for just this blog, so just 2 short of 1 tree! I don’t want to search “just for the sake of searching”, so I’ll leave the 2 searches for my next project.

6. Ban the internal e-mail at your office

This last one may sound silly, but it isn’t. Think about the amount of e-mails you get from your coworkers – if you have any – each day. The next time you are typing an e-mail to your colleague who is sitting 2 desks away from you, think about whether you can just walk up to that person to ask your question. And no, don’t be scared to “not get anything done” or to “interrupt the other person constantly”.

Research actually shows that a no e-mail policy can increase productivity and reduce stress. So hey, that’s good for you AND for the planet.

Do you have any other ideas on how to reduce our internet carbon footprint?

Or would you like to share how much CO2 you reduced by using CleanFox, or the amount of trees Ecosia planet on your behalf? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post 6 easy ways to reduce your internet carbon footprint appeared first on My Happy Footprint.