Digital pollution: how to reduce your environmental footprint on the web

Did you know that our online presence on the web pollutes as soon as we have an online account, an email address, or use a cloud? Digital pollution is greater than that of air travel. According to The Shift Project report for digital sobriety from 2018, the weight of digital technology and air travel was equivalent until 2017, but since then, the gap has continued to widen. So what can we do as consumers to lessen our environmental footprint on the web? 

Keep your devices for longer

Our connected devices have an environmental footprint that begins on the first day of their manufacture. In fact, that is when it is most massive. The device that pollutes the least is the one we don't need to produce. 

Concretely, what pollutes the most is the construction of equipment: computers, smartphones, tablets. There are 4 billion people using the internet worldwide, and they are all equipped with multiple devices. 

" In digital technology, there is the energy we use to run them, but above all, there is the energy to manufacture them. Typically, for a smartphone, 90% of the carbon bill is spent at the moment you open the smartphone. Afterwards, recharging it for 2 to 3 years is only 10% of the CO2 bill. When it comes to digital items, the manufacturing stage is extremely significant. " 

          Xavier Verne, member of the think tank The Shift Project

We must make sure to keep our devices for as long as possible, so as not to have to buy new ones every two years.