The Hidden Cost of Email
Your Inbox is polluting the Environment
In a world where digital communication reigns supreme, it’s easy to forget that even our virtual actions leave a trace on our environment. Emails, the electronic successors of old-fashioned letters, may not contribute to paper pollution, but they do have a hidden environmental cost. Let’s explore the surprising carbon footprint of emails and discover practical steps to make our online interactions more eco-conscious.
The University of California, Berkeley, conducted a study revealing that the average person sends and receives approximately 122 daily emails. Each of these emails, the study found, has a carbon footprint ranging from 0.3 to a significant 50 grams of CO2e, depending on various factors such as size, number of attachments, distance traveled, and the server used.
According to Ademe, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, a 1-megabyte e-mail emits around 19 grams of CO2.
This does not seem like a big number but try to think bigger. Let’s consider a hypothetical scenario: a small company with 50 employees, each sending just five emails a day, five days a week. In a single day, they collectively generate 95 grams of CO2e. Over a week, that’s 475 grams. Now, multiply this by five — the number of working days in a week — and you’re looking at a staggering 23750 grams of CO2e, which is more than 23 tonnes per year!
While emails no longer contribute to paper pollution, they still contribute to carbon emissions.
Here are some of the factors that contribute to the carbon footprint of email
- The size of the email. The larger the email, the more energy it takes to send and store.
- The number of attachments. Attachments, especially large ones, can significantly increase the carbon footprint of an email.
- The distance the email travels. Emails that travel long distances, such as across the ocean, have a higher carbon footprint.
- The type of server that stores the email. More efficient servers have a lower carbon footprint.
It’s essential to acknowledge the impact of our seemingly trivial online actions. Though challenging to influence tech giants like Google in their data creation, individuals hold the power to mitigate their environmental impact through mindful digital practices.
Simple Solutions
- Keep our emails short and to the point. The smaller the email, the less energy it takes to send and store.
- Avoid sending attachments. We can use a cloud-based storage service such as Google Drive or Dropbox if we need to send a large file.
- Delete old emails regularly. The more emails we have stored on our server, the more energy it takes to run the server.
- Use a green email provider. There are a number of email providers that are committed to reducing their environmental impact. For example, Gmail uses renewable energy to power its data centers.
- Use plain text instead of HTML whenever possible. HTML emails require more energy to send and receive than plain text emails.
- Compress large images before sending them as attachments. This will reduce the size of the attachments and the amount of energy it takes to send them.
- Unsubscribe from unwanted mailing lists. This will reduce the number of emails you receive and the amount of energy it takes to store them.
Imagine a world where technological innovations prioritize sustainability. By advocating for sustainable digital development and refining our digital habits, we can transform our online world. Let’s embrace this challenge and work towards a future where our virtual interactions are as eco-conscious and sustainable as our physical ones.
To explore further, you can access the full study here.
