The hidden cost of digitalization
Did you know that digitalization not only brings innovation and, in many cases, convenience to our lives, but also emits a lot of harmful substances due to its enormous energy consumption, resulting in a huge carbon footprint? In 2020, this was on par with air travel, but by the end of 2025, it could double. All of this can be quantified, of course, and you can help reduce this number by incorporating a few conscious steps into your life.
Let’s look at a few examples
- The carbon footprint of an email is around 0.3-50 g CO2
- An hour of watching Netflix has a carbon footprint of 55 g CO2
- Other similar entertainment platforms and social media sites have similar, if not higher, emissions: an hour of scrolling on Instagram has a carbon footprint of 63 g CO2e, while an hour of gaming has a carbon footprint of 47-149 g CO2
- The environmental impact of an AI-generated text prompts is also not negligible (4.14 g CO2e)[1], not the least because an AI-powered search is fifty to ninety times more energy-intensive than a simple Google search.
When considering these figures, it is also important to note that although the carbon emissions of a single email may seem negligible, billions of emails are sent every day, resulting in a truly significant carbon footprint. This is especially true when we consider that a large percentage of emails sent are never even opened, meaning that the unnecessary emissions are even greater than the “useful” ones.
It’s not just energy, it’s water, too
Digitalization not only competes with other sectors in terms of energy consumption, or even exceeds their emissions, but its water consumption is also growing.
Of course, energy and water consumption can and must be optimized, but different companies show very different statistics in this regard, and sometimes a less efficient company uses tens of times more energy to produce a unit than its industry competitors. In this case, the role of water is to cool data centers, which is an important, if not the most important, part of the operation and the development and training of systems.
It is therefore no coincidence that large tech companies are investing in and leasing various units from nuclear reactors or wind farms to secure the amount of energy they need.
What Can We Do?
Although responsibility clearly weighs more heavily on companies (according to research, they are responsible for 2 units of harmful emissions, while individuals are responsible for only 1), you can also do your part to reduce your digital carbon footprint:
- Turn off AutoPlay on your devices.
- If you’re only listening to a video, lock your screen to save energy.
- If you like taking photos, feel free to delete the ones that didn’t turn out so well, as this will free up space.
- Connecting to Wi-Fi instead of mobile data and regularly updating the apps you use can also help reduce your emissions in online space.
- Putting your devices in dark mode can also help.
- But the most important thing is to consume digital content consciously, reduce your screen time, and avoid unnecessary scrolling, thus contributing to reducing your digital footprint.
Notes and sources
CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent): a common unit for measuring greenhouse gases, converting various emissions into the equivalent amount of CO2.
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