We (almost) all do it – whether on a smartphone, tablet or computer – around 57 million people[1] in Germany alone spend an average of almost 4 hours online every day[2]. This means that digitalization is responsible for three percent of CO2 emissions worldwide, and the trend is rising. In this article, we break down how much energy we use on social networks every day and how we can change sustainability on the internet through our digital behavior.
What do we actually use the Internet for?
Quickly googling something, a new video here, a funny clip there, a new message or just checking the weather. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the language with which computers connected to the internet could exchange data. Internet pages could be accessed via links – the World Wide Web was invented. But nobody could have imagined the profound social change this would bring. The original idea in 1969 was to network powerful mainframe computers used by the military, the arms industry and research. However, since the 1990s, the Internet has also become increasingly important for people outside of research and the military. Nowadays, hardly anyone can imagine living without an Internet connection. According to the ARD/ZDF Online Study 2022 , 95% of the German population now use the internet. But how does the internet actually work?
Let’s imagine you want to watch a new, cute otter video (and yes, they’re really cute! ?). Many users don’t realize that emailing, surfing and streaming takes a lot of energy. Because before you can burst into ecstasy over these cute little animals, the file has to be routed through various servers, search queries have to be managed and saved. All of this consumes energy. A lot of energy. Because the servers run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For optimal, constant use, the server rooms must be air-conditioned and kept at 22 to 24 degrees Celsius. [3]
The question of energy consumption
It is difficult to determine exactly how much energy is required for your search query – let’s take Google, for example. According to a study by the think tank “The Shift Project”, an approximate value of 0.3 watt hours can be assumed, but the value fluctuates and is influenced by several factors: the severity of the search query, the server load and the outside temperature. The warmer it is outside, the more energy is needed to cool the server rooms. In Sweden, they want to use this waste heat in the district heating network. This is so much that it could replace a tenth of Stockholm’s heating requirements by 2035. [4]
Unfortunately, there has so far been a lack of willingness in Germany to actively use waste heat from data centers or to make operators responsible for recycling it.
In total, data and server centers in Germany already consumed 16 billion kWh of electricity in 2020, and the trend is rising[5]. The use of cloud services accounts for a large part of the increased energy demand. By 2025, 60 percent of energy requirements will be needed for these services alone.
How much CO2 do social media services and streaming services consume?
One thing is clear: every tweet you send, every video, every message, every photo, every piece of music you listen to via a streaming service … all of this consumes energy.
Let’s take a closer look at the individual social media channels.
Good old email was the very first “social media channel”, so to speak. Not in the sense that we know it today, but it was a new way of communicating with each other digitally. The American computer scientist Ray Tomlinson is considered the official inventor of email. He sent the first email from one computer to another in 1971, revolutionizing the world of messaging. However, sending an e-mail also requires energy. An e-mail consumes around 4 grams of CO2, with an attachment around 50 grams, i.e. significantly more.
To illustrate what happens and consumes energy on the internet in one minute, here is a graphic for the year 2021. Even if these figures are mostly based on estimates and assumptions, they do provide a good indication. Around 285 billion emails were sent and received per day in 2021. According to forecasts, these figures are set to increase, so that by 2025, around 376 billion emails will be in transit every day, consuming around 140 million tons of CO2. Spam emails are a major energy guzzler, accounting for around 55 percent of emails sent and received[6].
What does “green computing” mean for sustainability on the Internet?
Most of the power is required for streaming services such as Netflix, Prime, Amazon etc., followed by the web (searching, researching, reading) and gaming. For example, one hour of Netflix in full HD resolution consumes around three gigabytes of data. Streaming services worldwide cause a total of 300 million tons ofCO2 per year. So if you stream a 30-minute video, it releases about as muchCO2 as a six-kilometer car journey.
According to the study, the biggest environmental sins are caused by streaming Netflix or Amazon series, porn films, YouTube and WhatsApp videos.[7]
Many large providers are now aware of this problem and are making efforts to reduce the costs of high electricity consumption and switch to “green computing”. Apple, for example, produces its own climate-neutral electricity from renewable sources and Google is also using AI to reduce its energy consumption. However, it is astonishing that the issue of energy consumption on the internet is not yet a major priority in society. When you consider that digital technology is responsible for four percent of greenhouse gas emissions, it even outstrips climate-damaging air traffic. And, as with air travel, consumption will increase year on year. Anyone who cares about climate protection should therefore not only avoid flying, but also question their data consumption.
In the second part of our article, we ask ourselves what and how we can change in order to conserve resources and reduce the burden on the environment.
