How to Reduce Your Digital Carbon Footprint?

The digital age has brought about ease and accessibility to millions of lives worldwide, while the growing improvements in technology have contributed to combating climate change. However, the use of technology and the internet comes with its own drawbacks.

Digital Carbon Footprint is the total carbon emissions released from digital devices and infrastructure, right from the manufacture and use to disposal. It is to say that everything you do with your electronic gadgets and the internet leaves a trail of carbon emissions which contributes to greenhouse gases.

To curb and reduce the amount of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere from digital technologies, there need to be strategies in place. One such concept is digital decarbonization.

Modern technology and digital activities (as simple as sending a text) leave an impact on the environment. They also contribute to the growing carbon emissions in the atmosphere through energy consumption and the burning of fossil fuels. To decrease this impact, tech companies, organizations and individuals adopt a method known as Digital Decarbonization.

Here, sustainable procedures, energy efficiency and green practices are adopted at every stage of digital technologies – from manufacture, operations, storage to disposal. 

We can divide the carbon footprint of our digital activities into two categories:

• The use of internet bandwidth, and
  
• The production and use of digital devices.

Fortunately, you can adopt many adjustments to lessen your digital carbon footprint.

Reducing the energy consumption of data centres is an important step towards making digitalization more sustainable. 5 ways to do that are: 

• Implementing Efficient Cooling Systems: One simple-sounding and popular solution is to locate data centres in cooler countries and blow the outside air into them. Warmed, piped water is another way to cool off high-performance computers, as is immersion cooling. Some companies are even working on using artificial intelligence to tune their cooling systems to match the weather and other fluctuating factors.
  
• Re-using Waste Heat: Data centres produce heat throughout the year. Ideally, this heat should constantly be extracted and reused elsewhere. Many newer data centres use the waste heat within the data centre itself. However, a more comprehensive approach like district heating or recycling waste heat can also contribute to a city’s goal of sustainability.
  
• Powering with Green Electricity: If data centres are ever to be operated in an environmentally friendly, carbon-neutral way, they will have to be powered by clean, renewable sources of energy. Some companies have started focusing more on sourcing their energy from wind or solar power or switching to LPG.
  
• Power management: Utilize power management features and tools to optimise energy consumption during periods of low demand or inactivity. Implement dynamic voltage scaling, frequency scaling, and server power capping.
  
• Energy monitoring and management: Deploy energy monitoring systems to track and analyse data centre energy usage. Use this information to identify inefficiencies and implement corrective measures. 

Although the potential of cryptocurrency to challenge established financial systems has been commended, its effect on the environment is often disregarded. The emergence of digital currency has increased emissions from fossil fuels. 

To create new coins and verify transactions on the blockchain, a process called 'mining' is used, which requires powerful computers - meaning significant energy. It is believed that the energy usage of the Bitcoin network alone surpasses the whole of Argentina.

China and Russia, two nations with the biggest Bitcoin mining operations, mainly rely on coal-fired power plants to provide electricity. This indicates that fossil fuels account for a considerable portion of the energy necessary to run mining rigs. 

In fact, according to some estimates, coal may power as much as 70% of Bitcoin mining. This dependence on fossil fuels restricts attempts to switch to renewable energy sources.

The most promising approach, however, is to power mining rigs with renewable energy sources or mine operations using microgrids.

The responsibility of reducing digital carbon footprint is not just on an individual user or social media companies, but primarily on data centres and government agencies funding these projects. There are many sustainable strategies that organizations can implement to be more environmentally appealing.

The future of the environment is intertwined with technology and digitalization. It is up to us to make a difference.