Office workers, it’s your time to shine! Did you know that digital files consume energy and resources? They are sitting around on a server in a data center, and that requires a lot of energy to run, as well as water to cool. According to one study, the internet produces more than 900 million tons of CO2e per year1. If we could flip a switch and use only solar, it would still take 3 times more energy than our current solar panels produce2.
So what can we do to help?
- Delete unneeded files, apps, and media like photos & videos.
- Join Digital Cleanup Day this Saturday, March 18th.
- Unsubscribe from newsletters that you don’t need.
- Talk to your coworkers about digital decluttering. Ask your IT Manager and Data Protection Officer for best practices.
- Make it a habit to clean up your files.
For more information, check out Digital Cleanup Day’s website. They even have specific guidelines for companies and municipalities.
Footnotes
- Renee Obringer, Benjamin Rachunok, Debora Maia-Silva, Maryam Arbabzadeh, Roshanak Nateghi, Kaveh Madani. 2021. The overlooked environmental footprint of increasing Internet use. (via digitalcleanupday.org)
- https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-information-overview (via digitalcleanupday.org)