damaging the planet?

Is the Internet Really Damaging the Planet?

Climate change is a hot topic and we’re all increasingly aware of the little things that make a big difference, be that swapping our gas guzzlers for electric cars, taking a reusable cup for our morning coffee or being vigilant with separating the recycling.

But when was the last time you stopped to think about the impact your daily consumption of the internet was having on the environment? It can’t be that bad, can it?

In 2020 global internet use doubled with over 4.4 billion people turning to it for work, entertainment and to stay in touch with family and friends. All that online activity requires A LOT of energy, so much so that it’s estimated by 2030 digital technologies will account for a staggering 20% of global greenhouse emissions. We need to remember that the internet isn’t actually ‘in the clouds’, it’s hosted in massive data centres across the world using energy sapping servers (often ran with nonrenewable, greenhouse gas emitting energy sources) to store every video, picture, email and WhatsApp that anybody has ever sent and saved. Add into this the carbon footprint of manufacturing then shipping tech hardware and the home consumption of energy to power users, and the hidden impact of the internet is colossal.

It’s not all bad though. Streaming a one-hour video still has a smaller carbon footprint than eating a beefburger or driving a petrol car less than half a mile, and the big players in the digital world are taking drastic steps to reduce their impact on climate change. Apple, Google and Facebook already use 100% renewable energy to power their operations and Microsoft has gone even further committing to be carbon negative by 2030 and to have offset all their historical carbon emissions by 2050. Companies such as Volkswagen Canada are launching more environmentally friendly websites too; using less colours, media and imagery drastically reduces carbon footprint left by online visitors. Check out www.vw.ca/ carbonneutralnet/en/gen Canada to see how the future of web design looks.

As individuals there are lots of small steps we can take to reduce our digital carbon footprint. For example, streaming videos and audio accounts for 63% of internet traffic; next time you’re watching Netflix on your phone try standard definition instead of 1080p, there’ll be minimal difference in quality yet in doing so you’re reducing emissions by up to 90%. Similarly on web calls ask yourself if you really need video. Audio only reduces carbon footprint by up to 96%. There are over 300 billion emails sent globally every day filling up servers and draining power, by deleting emails you don’t need any more, sending direct instead of replying to all and unsubscribing from newsletters you’re not interested in you’re saving huge amounts of digital storage. It’s not only data centres sapping energy. A quarter of residential power consumption is used by devices in idle mode; try setting your laptop to shut down rather than sit in standby and turn your phone off for periods of the day to conserve battery.

Is the internet damaging the planet? Yes, but it doesn’t have to. If we act responsibly and consciously, we can all make a significant difference … small actions today in a digital world, have a huge impact on the physical world of tomorrow.

This column is contributed by Eve Wardman, co-founder and director of Wardman UK Ltd, the Lothian’s premier IT and Microsoft Cloud Solutions provider.