An estimated 2.5 billion people are connected to the Internet. I am one of them. And so are you, otherwise you would not be here reading this blog post. But did you ever think of the impact your Google Searches, YouTube streaming, Netflix binge-watching, social media scrolling and continuous flow of e-mails has on our planet? In other words, do you know what the carbon footprint of the internet is?
When it comes to sustainability, the first things that pop into our minds are ‘the usual suspects’ like food, clothing, the airline industry and plastic pollution. The internet on the other hand is seen as something that has to do with ‘dematerialization’: for everything that is digital, we feel like we don’t need that many resources, so we are actually helping the planet. And that might be true in some way, as we no longer need the same amount of paper as before (hooray for the trees). But…
The internet is leaving a larger ecological footprint than we think
So how is it possible that the internet is leaving such a high carbon footprint?
Here is how that happens:
First of all, the production of the devices that we use to connect to the internet (a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, a television) require raw materials. A lot. Our extensive use of these devices combined with planned obsolescence puts a lot of pressure on the Earth’s resources.
The same goes for data centres – those giant buildings packed top to bottom with servers full of the websites, databases, online applications and files that make our ever increasing hunger for online activity possible. All these servers first need to be produced. And what about the network needed to transport all that data? Think about all those thousands and thousands of kilometers of internet cables at the bottom of the ocean, network antennas and optic fibres. More resources extracted from our precious planet.
All those personal devices and the data centers require tons of electricity. Not only to charge our smartphone or to power the servers 24 hours a day. Data server centers require a lot of additional power for the air conditioning needed to keep the servers from overheating. All this electricity is generated from different sources, including a large amount of fossil fuels, that cause pollution.
This is what your binge-watching Sundays cost the planet
So how much does it really cost, our online addiction? Well, I have some facts for you that might scare, or at least surprise you a bit:
If the Internet were a country, it would be the sixth largest consumer of electricity on the planet, right behind Russia, Japan, China, India, and the US*
The energy footprint of the IT-sector is estimated to consume 7% of the global electricity.**
Video streaming is a tremendous driver of data demand, with 63% of global internet traffic in 2015, and is projected to reach 80% by 2020. Netflix accounts for one-third of that traffic alone. However, Netflix scores a sad 17% on the “Click Clean Scorecard” of Greenpeace and still uses a lot of unsustainable sources to bring Donald Draper, Jessica Jones and Piper Chapman into your living room.
I bet that’s not what you expected, right? I know I didn’t.
Not, let’s have a look at this:
How much pollution do you cause by sending an e-mail or doing a Google Search?
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to calculate the complete carbon footprint of the internet. That would mean analyzing every tweet, like, share, WhatsApp message, activities of “Internet-of-Things” devices, just to start. That’s not the purpose of this blog post. It’s about creating awareness of the impact our digital behavior has. So I decided to dive into the data of two everyday activities for many of us: Google searches and sending e-mails.
The carbon footprint of a Google Search
An online search emits about 0.2 grams of CO2. You could do 5.000 searches – almost 14 searches per day for an entire year – before you hit 1 kilo of CO2. To put that in perspective: That’s the same as driving 4,46 kilometers in a (non-electric) car, according to calculations of MilieuCentraal.
Although Google, the biggest search engine on the planet, does not disclose how many searches it handles each year, it is estimated that it’s more than 2 trillion.
In CO2 terms, a year of Google Searches equals 1.785.720.000 kilometers driven in a (non-electric) car.
The carbon footprint of e-mails
If we look at e-mails, it is estimated that sending an e-mail emits between 4 and 50 grams of CO2, depending on how many recipients the e-mail has, the length of the e-mail and the size of the attachment. Let’s take 10 grams as an average.
With an estimated 269 billion e-mails send each DAY, that comes down to a whopping 2,69 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide each day. Or a little over 12 billion kilometers driven in a (non-electric) car. A day! That is a huge impact.
Oh, and by reading this article, you created an estimated 24 grams of CO2…
Now, you could click away from this article and take a walk outside in order to save the planet. That’s a good start.