Lesson 1Does “Digital” equal “Green” ?

Notion 4

What is the environmental impact of our working habits? (services)

Target skills

Learn how we can contribute to digital sustainability as a user of digital services.

According to the Internet World Stats, in March 2021, there were 5,168 millions internet users, which makes 65.6% of global population.

Here is a picture of what a minute on internet looked like in 2021:

All media on this site are described by the text nearby

Those are just some glimpses of how much data is travelling within a 60 second timeframe. This internet traffic only tends to increase.

Now, let´s see how this data travelling and storage is reflected in CO2 emissions. Here´s an infographic that shows how much CO2 is produced by our daily online activities and popular platforms.

What can we do as internet users in order to reduce this footprint:

Switch off video during conferencing
Reduce your e-mail size by providing links instead of attachments or using lower resolution images;
Avoid sending unnecessary e-mails, like those only saying “Thank you”; or “reply all” option;
Play songs as audio files rather than streaming them as video on YouTube;
Play lower resolution videos (especially on small screens) and turn off auto-play features;
Unsubscribe from e-mail distribution that you don´t really need;
Reduce data storage by compressing documents and deleting everything unnecessary;
For quick searches use a phone or tablet instead of a laptop or desktop;
Use Wi-Fi instead of mobile networks, which have 20 times more impact in terms of energy use;
Bookmark your favourite sites to access them without using search engines