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The Carbon Footprint of the Internet

THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF THE INTERNET CO2 EMISSIONS FROM EMAILS, SEARCHES, AND CLOUD STORAGE II SIZING UP THE INTERNET'S CARBON EMISSIONS CARBON FOOTPRINT: The total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) There are an estimated The INTERNET'S ENERGY AND 2.5 BILLION PEOPLE CARBON FOOTPRINTS are around the world connected to estimated to exceed the Internet. those of air travel. THE INTERNET CONSUMES A HUGE AMOUNT OF GREENHOUSE GAS (GHG) EMITTING ENERGY WHICH CAN BE DIVIDED INTO 2 PIECES: MANUFACTURING AND SHIPPING Technology companies must manufacture and ship the internet's hardware including: ... 000000000 |000|000|0ooj000j000| Servers Computers Smartphones POWERING AND COOLING Computers and smartphones must be powered and cooled, drawing electricity from local grids. This power is generated in different ways with varying emissions. OIL Coal Natural gas Petroleum Production of servers And every time we use a search engine, there's an output of GHG gases because every Looking at a webpage with pictures or video emits an estimated .2 grams of CO2 per second. requires more GHG-producing unique search requires multiple servers. energy. One Google search accounts for an estimated .2 to 7 grams of carbon dioxide emissions. An email has an estimated carbon footprint of 4 grams of CO2, and a large attachment could have a footprint of 50 grams. 7 grams is equivalent to boiling a pot of tea or driving a car 52 feet. CARBON EMISSIONS AND THE CLOUD The information communications and technology industry-which delivers Internet, video, voice, and other cloud services-produces more than 830 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. That's about 2% of global CO2 emissions. 13% 17% 23% 62% 61% 53% 25% 22% 24% 2002 2011 2020 END-USER DEVICES NETWORKS DATA CENTERS Social media, music, email, streaming video, and commerce are increasingly moving online. And depending on the company, the energy created to store that That means a lot of new data to store. data isn't very green. THE AMOUNT OF DATA WE USE IS SET TO INCREASE: Analysts project that data use will triple between 2012 and 2017 to 121 exabytes (or about 121 billion gigabytes). Followed by: The U.S. remains the largest global consumer of data center Japan Germany United N Kingdom 7 power. France Netflix and Streaming video and audio YouTube combined represent more are the biggest drivers of than 50% of Internet traffic at explosive data growth. peak times in North America. A NUMBER OF MAJOR INTERNET COMPANIES HAVE TAKEN BIG STEPS TO GREEN THEIR CLOUD. Six major cloud brands have committed to a goal of powering data centers with 100% renewable energy: APPLE GOOGLE Вох RACKSPACE FACEBOOK SALESFORCE APPLE: Purchased wind Powers its North Carolina data Powers its Nevada data centers with energy for its Oregon and California data centers with solar energy. geothermal and solar energy. centers. FACEBOOK: Now uses Its new lowa center will run on 100% wind power. more renewable energy to power its data centers. A small business with 100 users could cut its carbon footprint and energy costs by 90% by moving to the cloud. Research shows the rise of cloud computing could have a positive environmental impact and help reduce the IT industry's carbon footprint. THE SHIFT TO CLOUD-BASED OPERATIONS COULD MEAN: A 38% reduction in decrease in the commercial real estate necessary to house large enterprises. energy usage in the world's data centers ..... by 2020. HOW TO REDUCE YOUR INTERNET CARBON FOOTPRINT CHANGE YOUR EMAIL HABITS Limit Unsubscribe from newsletters Talk in person "reply all." rather than you're no longer interested in. over email. CHOOSE A CONSCIOUS CLOUD Consider storing your data on a Some providers are run green cloud provider. completely on renewable energy sources. SHUT DOWN The U.S. Department of Energy recommends powering down computers if you'll be away from them for more than 2 hours. TAKE A SNOOZE Even in sleep mode, computers continue to burn energy. The average energy-efficient laptop burns between 15-60 watts of energy while in use and 2-5 watts of energy while in sleep mode. Set your computer to go into sleep mode after a certain number of minutes so it can run more efficiently while you're away for shorter periods of time. KILL THE VAMPIRE POWER When plugged in but powered down, computers continue to draw Unplug chargers that arent in use or use an at least .5 to 2 watts of energy, known as vampire power. energy efficient power strip. USE A TABLET OR SMARTPHONE (SOMETIMES) For quick searches and non work-related tasks, use a tablet or smartphone instead of a laptop or desktop. They use far less energy than the larger devices. The Internet, email, and cloud-based services have cut down on tons of physical resources like paper. But the carbon emissions produced from manufacturing, powering, and 'cooling computers, smartphones, and data centers can add up. The greening of the Internet is the next endeavor in our hyperconnected era. timeforchange.org • greenpeace.org • open-freax.fr • izzitgreen.com • time.com sciencedaily.com • www.greenpeace.org • go-green.ae • mightybytes.com Brought to you by: In Partnership with: CUSTOME MADE GHERGICH&Co. II

The Carbon Footprint of the Internet

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The United States is the largest user of the internet – and with an increasing demand for data storage, internet companies are scrambling to supply our increasing internet needs. But at what cost do...

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