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How your email habits might be damaging to the environment
By now, we’re all pretty familiar with the simple things we can do to help the planet: recycling, line-drying our clothes, turning off our lights – amateur stuff. But did you know that your email habits could be contributing to your carbon footprint too? If you’re the type of person who leaves thousands of emails unopened or never bothers to unsubscribe from anything, don’t worry – we get it. But just between us, it might be time to clean up your act and your inbox to make your digital habits more eco-friendly.
What’s your inbox got to do with the environment?
In 2010, carbon footprint expert Mike Berners-Lee released the findings of some of his research into digital carbon footprints. He revealed that the footprint of the average email is equivalent to about four grams of carbon dioxide emissions. Larger emails, especially ones with large attachments can leave footprints of around 50 grams – over the course of a year, the average emailer accumulates a footprint of about 300 pounds (roughly 136 kilograms) of carbon dioxide emissions. These figures are based on the energy it takes computers to create, send, filter and read messages.
Keep in mind that those numbers only take into account the energy used to send an email – storing emails is a whole different matter. All emails that haven’t been deleted or moved to external storage – even archived emails – are stored in what’s called the ‘cloud’. The cloud sounds great – white, soft, fluffy – but in reality, it consists of warehouses (called data centres) full of hard drives working day and night to store your emails. Not only does this use an incredible amount of electricity, but it also takes up an immense amount of physical space: some of these data centres sit on up to a whopping 200 acres of land. After years and years of emails piling up in inboxes around the world, it’s beginning to take a harsh toll on the planet.
What can be done?
Luckily, it’s not all doom and gloom! We’ve done the research and found the best tips for doing a digital spring clean.
- • Delete the emails you don’t need anymore from your inbox and all other folders. It’s easiest to do regularly to avoid a buildup of clutter – but if you’ve never done it before, set aside a little bit of time to delete old emails en masse.
- • If you need to save attachments, but no longer need the email they came with, consider moving the attachments to an external storage source, like a hard drive or a USB – then delete the email.
- • The unsubscribe button is your best friend. We don’t have to know you to know that your inbox is likely filled with annoying social media notifications and offers from brands you shopped with five years ago. When you come across these emails, unsubscribe from them to save even more emails piling up in your inbox. If you’re not totally ready to part with a certain sender, most brands and social platforms will allow you to adjust your email preferences so you only receive the emails you want to see.
- • Empty your spam, trash and archived folders regularly. It feels as though things go to those folders to die – in reality, lots of energy is being used to keep them alive. If you don’t need them, delete them.
- • Opt for phone notifications rather than emails. If you have a social media app, adjust your settings to allow push notifications to your phone and turn off email notifications.
It’s never too late to start decluttering and having a positive impact on our planet. Consumer efforts to be more eco-conscious shows brands that we want to see a more sustainable future. In fact, corporations such as Apple, Google and Netflix have already started to green up their act by switching to clean energy sources for their data centres.
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