Preferring to use email rather than physical correspondence, it is believed to be more environmentally friendly because it reduces the use of paper. But even though email is not in physical form, electronic mail still leaves a carbon footprint.
That's why, we seem to have started deleting unwanted emails. According to a report by Green Matters, emails that are not deleted and stored in cloud storage consume a lot of electricity. And sadly, in many parts of the world, electricity is still generated from fossil fuels.
So even though email has reduced paper usage, if we intentionally store it, it still contributes to carbon emissions. This means, the more emails you keep in your inbox or email inbox, the bigger your carbon footprint.
Eco2 Greetings data states, email for one year can contribute the equivalent of 136kg of carbon dioxide which has the same impact as driving 322 kilometers in a gasoline-powered car.
The report also states, during 2019 alone, there were 107 billion spam emails sent and received. If everyone deleted those 10 emails each, we could save 1,725.00 gigabytes of storage space and about 55.2 million kilowatts of power.
It seems that deleting old emails, or those that take up cloud storage space can be chosen as one way to help reduce your carbon footprint. After all, you guys won't need it for years, right?