This might not be something that springs to mind when you are considering how to live a more sustainable life. However, have you ever thought how much energy is consumed from storing your old emails?
Email providers store our emails on their servers which are consuming energy 24 hours a day. This means the more messages we keep the more servers they need to store them, and the more energy consumed.
A study by ICF International and McAfee estimated that 1 GB of email uses 32.1kwh per year.
And, Cleanfox estimates that an email is on average responsible for the emission of 10 grams of Co2 per year, and if the Internet were a country, it would be the sixth biggest electricity consumer in the world.
The telecoms company Orange say:
if every single person in France deleted 50 emails, the energy savings would be equivalent to turning the Eiffel tower’s lights off for 42 years, or to New York City not consuming any electricity for 4 hours.
So, why not start saving energy today and clean up your inbox. For tips on how to keep your inbox clear check out my Blog Clean Up Your Email and Help Save Energy.