Our thinking

Skyping grandma, hidden carbon

3 July, 2020

Working from home, teleconferencing, Zoom parties: surely lockdown has reduced our personal carbon footprints? But this digital lifestyle has hidden carbon costs. 

More time spent online means more data transfer, and the servers that power the internet have a significant carbon impact. In the USA, data centres account for 2% of national electricity use. A video call may be better than a transatlantic flight, but it still has an impact. 

But, before you shut your laptop in panic, there is good news. Many of the tech giants are cleaning up their acts. We know about Microsoft’s industry-leading environmental commitments, but Apple’s data centres have been powered by renewables since 2018 and your Netflix binges are either run on green energy or the associated carbon emissions are offset. Amazon Web Services, which hosts a remarkable 40% of global cloud storage, lags behind at 50% renewable energy, but the company is committed to carbon neutrality by 2040.  

Digital service providers can help too. Clothing retailer Organic Basics has a brilliant ‘low impact website’ that uses up to 70% less energy than their conventional site by minimising data transfer, reducing screen brightness, and only displaying images when the user asks for them. Remarkably, the website also adapts to the current energy intensity of its servers. More renewables in the energy mix means you can view high-resolution images, while at high-carbon moments you will have to make do with line drawings.  

The carbon impacts of time spent online may be naturally hidden, but initiatives like that of Organic Basics shine a spotlight. Once visible, they begin to influence the behaviour of both consumers and businesses. 

By Ben Wood