Did you know that you can make a difference by turning off your camera during a Zoom meeting or reducing the quality of the Netflix video you watch?

Read this paper ( https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cNbn3HVLKiCM0) about the #Internet's environmental #footprint.

Our small steps can make a difference.

Let's look at what's going on. Transitioning to a digital lifestyle has been made easier by #COVID19. This has a lot of benefits (e.g. reduced travel emissions) but just like electric cars and renewable energies, online activities are not as clean as perceived by most people.

Each online activity is associated with some amount of #data download/upload; processing and transmitting data takes #energy and #water (for cooling); and producing energy has some environmental footprint (carbon, water, land, ...) that we are unaware of most of the time.

It's impossible to accurately calculate the #EnvironmentalFootprint of data as transparency is a major, overlooked component of operations in the #DigitalWorld. Yet, we can and we must start with rough estimates to underline the importance of tracking what's going on.

App Max GB/hr

Netflix 7
Hulu 7.2
Amazon video 7
Youtube 15.98
Spotify 0.04
Skype 1.86
Zoom 2.5
Webex 2.58
FaceTime 0.18
Google Hangout/Duo 3.24/0.48
Facebook 0.16
Twitter 0.36
Instagram 0.10
Snapchat 0.16
TikTok 1.4
WhatsApp 0.4
WeChat 0.11
Online Gaming 0.3
Web Surfing 0.15

Using these () numbers, this paper has roughly estimated the carbon, water & land footprint of some of the most famous Internet apps.

The big differences between the estimated values tell you why your choices & digital behavior make a difference. https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cNbn3HVLKiCM0

The results suggest that small changes can make a big difference.

For example, if you turn off your camera during a virtual meeting, you can reduce the environmental footprint of the call by 96%. If you stream your video in the SD mode instead of HD, the reduction is 86%.