Computers, mobile phones and electronic devices are amazing and have transformed our lives.
BUT worldwide ICT (Information Communication and Technology) accounts for around 4% of the world’s electricity consumption and around 1.4% of the world’s carbon footprint.
Reduce it NOW:
- Charge devices overnight when generally the electricity grid carbon impact is lowest
- Use on battery power (not charging) during peak times (4pm to 8pm) this helps the grid make better use of renewables
- Don’t leave chargers plugged in and switched on
- Enable energy-saving modes on devices (eg: switch off display after 2mins of non-use; switch off storage device after 10mins of non-use, etc)
- Enable dark mode for mobiles and laptops, especially if your device has an OLED display. Having a background of blackness instead of whiteness can save 30% of the devices energy.
And NAIL THE EMAIL
- A typical email causes 4g of CO2 equivalent emissions
- An email with large attachments causes 50g of CO2 equivalent emissions, mainly because of backup copies and archiving made at the server end. Read more here: https://carbonliteracy.com/the-carbon-cost-of-an-email/
How many unread & never-looked at emails are on YOUR computer? Let alone the draft versions? Let alone the sales spam emails and the irrelevant emails from donkey’s years ago.
Our roving reporter had over 12,000 on his home computer and over 55,000 emails on his work computer. Let us know if you can beat his record.
Fulfil yourself this weekend! Exercise the delete button and have a good, solid clear-out of all that junk. Just think of the positive carbon impact we could all make.