Carbon footprint is defined as the environmental impact of digital technology and activities (Sangfor Technologies). With increased digitalization, the carbon footprint has become a concern. Organizations and individuals have the responsibility to protect the Earth by reducing their carbon footprint. Although, carbon footprint is something that can be seen many have the mind set of "out of sight, out of mind" (Adeyanju). 

Data centers are infrastructures that store, process, hold, and distribute data. Essentially, all the data in the world goes through data centers. They use 3% of the world's electricity. That electricity comes from fossil fuel sources that create CO2 (Sangfor Technologies). To prevent overheating, these centers use 3 to 5 million gallons of water, about the same amount used by a city with a population of 50,000.

Now, how exactly are you connected to data centers? Well, every email, video call, streaming, and podcast that you use contributes to the data sent to these centers. Writing an email creates 17 grams or more of carbon dioxide, and keeping and archiving emails still adds to the carbon footprint. Remember to delete them and avoid sending large attachments!

Remember 2020 when everyone was using zoom and it was mandatory to have the camera on? An hour meeting creates between 150 to 1,000 grams of carbon dioxide (Harding). Now image how much carbon dioxide was produced during the pandemic when almost the entire world was on zoom yet it could have been reduced. Whenever you need to hop on a zoom call or any video call, using audio only because it reduces carbon emission by 96% (Harding)! The next time you're told to turn on the camera, let them know you care about the planet. 

Even by watching or downloading videos/podcasts affect the planet. For every podcast episode you download, it produces 1.16 metric tons of carbon emissions. Streaming on the other hand, in particular, Netflix's average user downloads 18 million terabytes, one hour creates 100 grams of carbon dioxide, and in 2020, it was found that annually, Netflix produces about 1.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (Harding). YouTube annually produces 6.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide while TikTok produces over double the amount, 14.7 million metric tons (Harding). It's time to find a replacemeant or reduce our use of streaming services to help our planet. 

Figure 1. Comparison between paper and digital. 

Carbon footpring has always existed but digitalization of things have increased the production. 

Source: Sangfor Technologies. “Digital Carbon Footprint: Effects and Mitigation.” Sangfor Technologies, 2024, www.sangfor.com/glossary/cloud-and-infrastructure/digital-carbon-footprint.

Electronic waste, also known as e-waste, is the accumulation of discarded pieces that come from technology. The United Nations has defined electronic waste as discarding any product with a battery or plug (Geneva Environment Network). The hardware and software that create devices have toxic and hazardous substances that hurt the environment (Geneva Environment Network). There has been solutions to reduce electronic waste that include certificed recycling and refurbishing programs.