New IET research reveals Brits’ photo hoarding carries higher carbon cost per year than round the world flights
Published: Tue 26 Oct 2021
Our new research released today has shown the nation’s trigger-happy social snappers are contributing over 355,000 tonnes of CO2 every year through unwanted pics alone: the equivalent to the entire population of Chelmsford flying to Australia and back.
The new study also found just a quarter of respondents delete additional shots they take, leaving millions of identical images being added to storage every week. And for those that do delete their excess pictures, fewer than one in six (16%) say they do this for environmental reasons (i.e., to reduce the burden of energy needed to power servers used to store our data dumps).
With many of us actively carbon offsetting to justify exotic trips, the vast majority by contrast (80%) fail to realise the damage scrolling, snapping, and signing up to that never read email newsletter is also doing to our beleaguered planet due to the carbon hungry energy it takes to service and store data.
Some of Brits’ ‘dirtiest data habits’ include:
- Failing to delete duplicated pictures from our phones (69%)
- Using two or more devices at once (almost 60%)
- Passive streaming – focussing on another device when streaming TV/ video content (52%)
- Failing to clear archives from messaging services e.g., WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger (63%)
- Holding onto old text messages (56%)
More positively, the IET’s survey also shows a significant desire to be more sustainable (71%), with two thirds (66%) believing everyone has an individual role to play in protecting the planet from climate change. And there are some incredibly simple steps we can all take to play our part.
Chris Cartwright, Chair of the Digital Panel at the IET says: “We’re really pleased to see the public becoming increasingly engaged in environmental debates. We want people to feel empowered to get involved and play their own part in tackling climate change and contributing to the journey to net zero.
“Until now, a lot of the noise on carbon emissions has been focused on the big contributors – the aviation, transport, and food industries – or costly and disruptive solutions such as solar panels, micro-generation, storing energy using power walls and heat pumps. But the story doesn’t stop there.
“In our ever more connected lives, the data we now rely so much on also comes with a hidden carbon cost. Unsurprisingly, most of us don’t realise that our use of cloud storage means huge, power-hungry data centres are needed.
“The vast majority of data in the world today has been generated in the past two years; a trend showing no signs of slowing. This is why we all have a responsibility to change our habits.
“Deleting unwanted emails and photos, limiting use of the ‘reply all’ function, turning off auto-play on podcasts, Netflix or Amazon Prime and even having a ‘video off’ zoom day – these are all small changes people can easily make to lead a more sustainable online lifestyle.”
To find out more about this research and our top tips to lower your data carbon footprint and be more sustainable online, please visit the IET’s press release page.