REDUCING THE CARBON IMPACT OF OUR EMAIL USE?
In order to quantify the carbon footprint of an email, it is necessary to take into account all of the steps that are involved in its life cycle, ranging from writing to receiving and reading emails, to saving or archiving them.
Overall, the carbon footprint of emails is mainly associated with the manufacturing of electronic devices that are used to write and read them.
The actual use of the devices becomes more important, and may even be more important than manufacturing, because the electricity that is used to power these devices is produced mainly from fossil fuels.
The best way to reduce the carbon footprint of email is to buy fewer electronic products, retain these devices for as long as possible and use ones that consume less electricity.
Send emails when you need to or when you think the recipients will appreciate your message, even if it consists of just a simple thank you. Delete your emails if you want to save storage space, find what you are looking for more rapidly, or many other good reasons besides saving the planet.
Luciano Rodrigues Viana is a PhD student in environmental sciences at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi (UQAC) and Jean-Francois Boucher is Professor, Eco-consulting at the same institute. Mohamed Cheriet is Professor, System Engineering Department at Ecole de technologie superieure (ETS). This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.
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