As webmaster for the Harbert College of Business, I am keenly aware of something most of us never even consider: the enormous and growing environmental impact of our everyday web browsing, email activity, media streaming and all aspects of the digital world.
Technology is ubiquitous in our society. From our phones to our appliances, practically everything is connected to the internet. We give the same amount of thought to turning on a lamp as we do to turning on our phone, computer, smart appliances and car. Absolutely none.
So, when we are asked to consider the energy crisis, most people will think about energy usage in terms of their power or gas bill.
According to online carbon calculator Website Carbon, the average website produces 1.76 grams of CO2 every time a website is viewed; a site with 100,000 page views per month emits 2.112 metric tons of CO2 every year. And the more complex a website is, the more energy it requires to load — and the greater its climate impact.
In early March of 2022, there were an estimated 1.94 billion websites online, according to Internet Live Stats, an algorithm-powered real-time counter. Every second, about four new websites are added.
Compare this to automobile emissions. A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of CO2 per year, the EPA reports. An estimated 1.2 billion vehicles were on the road in 2021, of which 98% were powered by gasoline or diesel fuel, according to Guidehouse Insights.
Look to the past and future of these industries, and you get a stark perspective: the internet became a global commercial network in the 1990s. The automobile has been around since the late 19th century. In the coming decades, gas-powered vehicles will give way to hybrid and electric cars. But the internet will just keep on growing.
The organization Carbon Care points out that if the internet and communications, or ICT, sector were a country, it would rank behind only two other countries in terms of electricity demand: the United States and China.
An email has an established carbon footprint of 4 grams of CO2. Add a large attachment and that footprint could widen to as much as 50 grams, according to Climate Care. A typical business email user creates a carbon footprint of around 135 kilograms.
At this point in history, data transfer and storage — think communications, internet, databases, and internet of things — is one of the biggest and fastest growing energy consumers. If we want to curtail the energy crisis and the impact technology has on the climate, we need to shift how we think about energy usage.
We need to look deeper at the coding, software and hardware of our tech. Streamlined and minimized coding is more energy efficient as it requires less storage and less energy to transfer across the internet in data packets. Software applications can also be streamlined in much the same manner. We should also move to using green-powered, energy-efficient hardware wherever possible.
Jennie Powers
Webmaster
Harbert College of Business
