Green Column

How can we be greener with our use of IT?

Since the pandemic, 40 per cent of working adults are engaged in hybrid working, splitting their working hours between their home and office. This has transferred many daily work activities online and intensified the nation’s digital carbon footprint. This digital shift has brought with it many benefits such as a better work-life balance, reduced travel, and fewer sick days. This does however come with an environmental cost through increased demand for devices, manufacture, materials, electricity, the internet, cloud use and e-waste all adding up to more CO2 emissions. A recent study suggests information communication technology (ICT) accounts for just under four per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and between eight-10 per cent of global energy consumption, and those figures are set to grow. If unchecked, the greenhouse gas emissions from the ICT sectors growth could account for 14 percent of global emissions by 2040. Reducing your digital footprint will save energy, cut costs, reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment through reduced raw materials extraction and harmful disposal at end-of-life processing.

TOP TIPS

• Avoid sending large attachments in emails and other web-based services (such as WhatsApp) unless absolutely necessary; compress attachments or send links when possible via file sharing, WeTransfer, Dropbox or similar. A 50 per cent reduction of emails with an attachment could reduce CO₂ emissions equal to 10 million cars driving in one year • Clear out and delete redundant files in storage and email accounts and unsubscribe from unnecessary sites and emails; each saved email emits on average 10g of CO₂ per year; small amounts which add up when you consider how many emails you have stored. By reducing the emails, you receive and save, the less energy data centres will use to send and store the files • Turn down the brightness of your screen; dimming from 100 per cent to 70 per cent can save up to 20 per cent of your monitor’s energy use. If you have a dark mode switch to that; a study found that switching over to dark mode at 100 per cent screen brightness reduced a phone’s battery usage by 42 per cent on average. Switching computer screens to dark mode also saves energy • Power down when not in use; unplug or use a smart power strip, be mindful that even in sleep mode your computer continues to use energy. If you are not able to turn off your CPU, switch off your monitor which can reduce energy use by up to 40 per cent • Switch to a renewable energy supplier; all ICT uses electricity, so make the power source as low carbon as possible • Utilise Wifi instead of an internet connection via 3/4/5G. As an example, 4G uses 20 times more energy, consuming far more battery power. Airplane mode should be used if your smartphone is out of range for wi-fi or 3/4/5G since the continual searching your device undertakes in the background drains the battery most. This article was adapted from a members-only iiE resource as part of our e-Learning Homeworking module. If you would like to find out more about improving the sustainability of our digital footprint, iiE are running a webinar on ‘Reducing the Carbon Impact of Internet Use’. This session is members-only but we have reserved tickets for connected readers. Sign up for your place here or visit our website www.iie.uk.com/events.