What is Digital Carbon Footprint and How Does it Affect the Climate?

It’s no secret that the internet has a lot of pros and cons in this modern world. According to recent data, the average person spends approximately 7 hours online every day with social media being one of the top visited application or websites.  

People often engage in texting, sending emails, using online social networks, financial services and search platforms.

Did you know that all these activities contribute to rising CO2 emissions?  

In this article, we will discuss how digital data plays a part in one's carbon footprint and what is the future of carbon footprint in technology.

Digital technologies and online activities leave an environmental impact, emit greenhouse gases (GHGs) and consume energy during their use and operation, leaving a global carbon footprint.

Digital Carbon Footprint encompasses the carbon emissions generated through the life cycle of digital devices and infrastructure, right from manufacture to disposal. Every minute spent scrolling a newsfeed, browsing the internet or streaming a video, contribute to our digital carbon footprint.

For e.g.:

• If you use a streaming service on your TV for one or two hours a day every year, you use enough electricity to run your fridge for half a year.
• Every minute, the world sends hundreds of millions of emails, which creates a carbon footprint similar to 500 flights from Singapore to New Zealand.
• Every minute, millions of searches made online create a carbon footprint similar to producing almost 4000 plastic bags.
• The globally streamed song Despacito gained over 8 billion streams on YouTube in a short period of time. That is equivalent to the electricity consumption of 5 African countries combined.

[Source]

Just because we cannot see the pollution, like how we can for planes, cars, industries, oil factories, etc., doesn't mean that there is no effect of the internet on our environment.  

A lot of energy is consumed and emitted in managing and operating the internet. The technology sector is expected to produce around 14% of global emissions by 2040.

Each data centre facility (or simply, the cloud) spread across the globe processes and stores millions of pieces of information in fractions of seconds. This requires lots of power, which majorly acts for cooling systems.  

If we look at a 12-megawatt facility, its energy is equivalent to 50,000 households in a year. Half, if not more of that energy goes towards the cooling systems in the data centre.

Other sources of digital carbon footprint are:

• Smartphones, computers, printers, modems, routers or the internet cables themselves contribute to digital carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of equipment includes raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation and distribution.
• Electronic hardware devices that are also discarded after use or when damaged, end up in landfills leaving a trail of carbon footprint.
• Use of equipment, i.e. electricity needed to charge phones or laptops, or to use routers or modems.
• Data transfer and data storage in data centres consume huge amounts of electricity which leave considerable amounts of carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
• The largest share of the digital footprint is caused by video streaming due to large data sizes of videos.

There's no denying that we need data centres, but they pose a significant reason as to why the internet uses so much power. There are more than 500 hyperscale data centres (large warehouses hosting tens of thousands of server racks) in the world.  

Organizations and companies can work towards implementing sustainable practices and technology to reduce their carbon footprint from this source.

Emissions from the development, use and disposal of digital technology may account for 1.8% to 3.2% of world emissions, according to a Borderstep Institute publication. The internet contributes 1.6 billion annual tonnes to greenhouse gas emissions.

When it comes to data, our focus has shifted from megabytes and gigabytes to tera, peta and exabytes. The world now has unlimited data that creates endless possibilities. More than half of the global population is online, creating a virtual world that is as a major contributor to the world's GHGs.

It is difficult to accurately determine the carbon emissions from different streaming platforms, social media platforms, data servers, etc., because many digital companies do not disclose this information. Thus, calculating the world's digital carbon footprint can only be a rough estimate.

According to researchers, the Information and Communication Technology sector (ICT) may contribute to a rough estimate of 2.1-3.9% of global emissions. Although it is challenging to draw comparisons, the data indicates that emissions from the ICT sector are higher than those from the aviation sector.

In 2020, there was more than 40% rise in global internet traffic. Over the past 10 years, there has been an increase in demand for digital services, which has led to this expansion.

The Information and Communication Technology sector impacts the climate in three ways:

• Direct carbon emissions associated with ICT manufacturing, use and disposal.
• Indirect positive or negative emission effects from using ICT (e.g. travel substitution and transportation optimization)
• Impacting behaviours and preferences (reshaping how we lead our lives on a societal level)

The ICT sector, however, contributes significantly to creating a positive impact on the climate. Through optimizing business processes and streamlining company activities, there has been a reduction in carbon emissions from other sources like travel or infrastructure.

The ICT sector also helps develop data models that can track, record and predict climate data to build strategies for decarbonization. 

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the ICT sector has seen network traffic growth almost exponentially, increasing the load on data centres and cloud solutions, but energy consumption for these purposes remains stable.

In a nutshell, we are transferring more data, but electricity consumption is not growing. 

Tech companies are under pressure to find alternatives to reduce their carbon emissions by using sustainable resources.

• The ICT sector’s carbon footprint could be reduced by over 80 percent if all electricity consumed came from renewable energy sources.
• Solar power can be sold to data centres to help power their operations using renewable energy.
• A floating data centre on the sea or built in cooler countries can help significantly with the cooling systems.
• Real change will be noticeable when data centres switch to LNG for power generation.
• Companies can also try adopting sustainable web designs. To do this, websites must be optimized for speed, less-intensive media and adding other minimal components. 

Individually, you can try these tips to reduce your digital carbon footprint:

1. Since video media formats take up majority data, you can disable autoplay for your social media as this requires more processing, hence more energy consumption.
2. Using a wi-fi network and downloading data rather than streaming can also reduce your digital carbon footprint.
3. Higher resolution also requires more energy consumption. You can regulate where to use higher resolution when streaming any media.
4. Unsubscribe from email distributions that you don't really need and clear your e-mail inboxes often to avoid unnecessary data storage.
5. Reduce your data footprint by compressing documents and removing duplicates.
6. Adopt sustainable disposal methods to avoid contributing to e-waste of old devices.

The internet is an ever-growing non-stop industry that the world heavily relies on for information, entertainment and even sustenance. The internet provides a silent and non-physical method of accessing data across corners of the world, yet it is a contributor to GHGs and global carbon emissions.  

Everyone uses the internet, but by understanding our digital carbon footprint better, we need to look for solutions where we can continue to enjoy the conveniences of the internet, while also moderating its environmental impact.