Five tips to reduce your digital carbon footprint

Everyday, approximately five billion people worldwide with internet access log onto various platforms — social media, education, or work related sites — on laptops, desktops, or handheld devices. At UW, over 40,000 staff, students, and faculty may be logging in everyday. Technology and the internet have transformed our world, allowing us to stay connected, hand in assignments, and repost memes. As use and dependence on online technology increases, energy consumption grows. Our online habits have an environmental impact as the rise in energy demand increases resource depletion, contributes to carbon emissions, and drives climate change. This impact is known as digital carbon footprint. 

Your digital carbon footprint is the total carbon emissions generated by your online activities. Streaming videos, playing games, scrolling on social media, downloading files, sending emails, attending remote meetings, doing online school — any online activity generates carbon emissions. As digitalization of our world continues the demand for high energy technologies will escalate. The four major impact areas of digital carbon footprint are: energy, land, water, and marine life. 

Every online interaction uses energy to send requests from personal devices to servers in data centres, which take a massive amount of energy to run. Water is also necessary for data centres, as it is used to prevent servers from overheating. According to the company, an average Google data center in 2021 consumed approximately 450,000 gallons of water per day. Data centers also take up a vast amount of space, leading to biodiversity loss. The core of internet connectivity lies in the ocean, where almost 1.5 million kilometres of submarine fibre optic cables carry telecommunication signals throughout the world. The installation and maintenance of these cables causes habitat disturbance, as well as chemical and noise pollution. 

With our increasing global dependence on the internet and the already existing impact to our planet, what can we do to reduce our digital carbon footprint? How do we address the environmental challenges while maintaining our connections? 

1. Reduce your energy consumption

Energy and digital devices are inseparable. Energy use is a major contributor to climate change, leading to approximately 60 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions according to UNICEF. By reducing your device’s energy consumption, you lower your digital carbon footprint. 

Think about enabling power saving mode to optimize energy usage, unplug chargers and devices when not in use, lower your screen brightness, and put your devices on sleep or hibernation modes when you’re not using them to reduce idle energy. 

2. Email mindfully

Emails are a highly used form of communication, especially within the university communication chain. Sending emails with large attachments can have the same carbon footprint as driving a car one kilometre. 

To reduce the carbon footprint of your emails, regularly delete old emails, “Reply all” only when necessary, unsubscribe from unwanted or unneeded newsletters, and compress large files before sending. 

3. Do a digital declutter 

Just like acquiring physical items that sit in your room or fill up your desk drawer, every file, app or program stored on your device uses energy to create and maintain. The more cluttered your device is, the greater the amount of energy it consumes during use. 

Do a digital declutter — review and delete unneeded or unused files, periodically clear your web browser’s cache and cookies and think twice before downloading new apps. This will help your devices run faster, your storage space will be freed up and your digital carbon footprint will be lowered. 

4. Limit AI use 

AI usage has become the norm in recent years, with ChatGPT supporting 180 million users since 2022. Every query on ChatGPT produces 4.32 grams of CO2 as opposed to the 0.2 grams of CO2 generated by a Google search. To put it in perspective, 16 queries is the equivalent of boiling one kettle. For each person asking a query through AI, carbon footprint accumulates. 

To reduce your emissions output try to only use AI programs when necessary. Choose AI models that are advocates for green technologies and seek out other research methods that are less carbon intensive, such as internet searches, conversations with experts, surveys, and more. 

5. Set digital downtime 

With school, work, and even socialization often being based online, it becomes a pattern for many to switch between their laptop and phone all day. Schedule time to take a break from going between one screen to another. Setting screen time limits on apps or disconnecting from your device completely is beneficial for your mental health and helps reduce your digital carbon footprint. Try swapping scrolling on your device for a stroll outside to help recharge your brain and lower stress. 

Addressing our increasing digital carbon footprints requires us to be aware of how each click, share, and comment we make online has a ripple effect throughout our natural world. Collective action at the individual and institutional levels needs to occur. Action to adopt greener online habits, seek out technologies that operate sustainably, and hold accountable the companies we fund to run our digital spaces. Practicing and advocating for environmentally responsible technology use protects future generations and our planet, one mindful digital interaction at a time.