The carbon footprint is a concept for calculating how much carbon emissions result from a person's activities or processes of a system. The resulting carbon emissions, affect the occurrence of climate change through the process that we commonly know as global warming. Because all production and consumption activities of goods and services produce greenhouse gas emissions, it is better for us to limit our respective carbon footprints to reduce emissions that are slowly harming the earth.
The digital and internet sector is one of the sectors that continues to produce a carbon footprint due to the high consumption of digital technology and the internet. The Shift Project reports that energy consumption and digital technology account for 3.7% of greenhouse gasses globally, including emissions resulting from the manufacturing process of audio-visual devices such as radios, televisions, computers and smartphones. The use of networks and online-based data storage is also included in digital emissions and continues to increase along with the rapid development of technology with new features for our digital devices.
Smartphone penetration in Indonesia is estimated to reach 89% of the population in 2025. More than half of the population in Indonesia or 56.2% have used smartphones in 2018. A year later, as many as 63.3% of people use smartphones and in the six years since 2019, smartphone penetration in the country grows by 25.9% (Statista, 2020)
The digital carbon footprint will continue to increase if the public is not informed
The use of internet uses a huge amount of energy, and every energy source that is used creates a carbon footprint. This carbon footprint appears from the manufacturing process, shipping, electricity usage and cooling until it is used, such as browsing information, server usage, data storage, email, and even video streaming. It is undeniable that using the internet has become a part of everyday life for today's society.
Increasing digital and internet literacy needs to be accompanied by information to minimize the carbon footprint of their use. That is, efforts to encourage technology literacy in the community while at the same time encouraging the responsible use of technology. For that, here are some ways that we can do referring to a number of references:
- Reorganize and reduce the amount of data on storage. This process can involve activities such as re-selecting if there is duplicate data, lowering the resolution for files in audio or visual format, deleting unnecessary data and rearranging the data structure. Easy and fast data search will ease the burden of energy use. Storage capacity is definitely possible to be enlarged with available commercial service facilities, but it would be wise if we can sort it out ourselves responsibly.
- Only replace devices when needed. Often consumers are tempted to replace devices with the lure of better technology. However, we are often unaware that our needs have been met with the devices available today. Recall that the process of producing equipment until it reaches our hands involves complex manufacturing activities and complicated logistics stages. Frequently changing smartphones or computers means increasing the carbon footprint of its users. Just need to wait until the right moment to replace.
- Manage video and audio usage. Browsing, watching movies, playing online games, it's fun. Until we forget the hours of time have been spent. The internet is indeed the best friend to spend time. However, data in the form of images and sound globally dominates up to 63% of internet traffic usage (climatecare, 2021). This category data uses more internet power than data in the form of text. There are specific ways to reduce the carbon footprint of movie or gaming connoisseurs and active social media users. For example, disabling the video auto-play feature, downloading to watch movies instead of streaming them, deleting them as soon as finished watching, adjusting the light intensity on the screen sufficiently, saving browsing traces, thereby making the following browsing more efficient, setting the power on the device automatically if left and many other ways.
- For business internet use, research shows a boom in internet use during a pandemic. This drastic increase is suspected to be a result of the office-from-home policy. The use of virtual-based meeting and conferencing facilities, correspondence by electronic mail and other messaging devices dominates the traffic of internet usage in the public period. Many action options can help reduce data usage significantly. Such as limiting the use of the camera, and using it only when needed, holding virtual meetings with a more efficient duration of time, rearranging data transmission with a smaller resolution and if possible, turning off the device when left. Or as simple as limiting data usage in storage by deleting repetitive data and old data that is no longer needed.
Everyone's consumption needs are certainly different, thus, ways to reduce carbon footprints can also be different in this sector. So, it's not a matter of whether we can afford to pay for large capacity and super-fast internet services, but encouraging responsible behaviour. If we do it on a massive scale, imagine the size of the carbon footprint from the digital world and the internet that we can reduce. Control is at our fingertips!
Reference
https://greeneration.org/en/media/green-info/reduce-your-digital-carbon-footprint-by-decluttering-your-digital-life/ accessed, 23 February 2022
https://webdevavl.com/six-things-you-can-do-to-reduce-the-carbon-footprint-of-your-internet-usage/ accessed 23 February 2022