Before you send that email, think of its carbon trail

IF EVERYONE sent just one less unnecessary email per day, it could reduce the UK’S carbon footprint by 16,000 tons per year, according to research.

The study, conducted in part by Prof Mike Berners-lee, claims that the UK sends more than 64million unnecessary emails every day, shedding new light on how our everyday lives can impact the climate.

The research, released today, found that UK adults sent around 11 unnecessary emails each day, with simple replies such as “thanks” or “you too” driving part of the UK’S carbon output.

The energy required from email servers, networks and systems such as the cloud in one year create a carbon footprint equal to that of 81,152 flights to Madrid, the study claims.

Prof Berners-lee, of Lancaster University, told The Daily Telegraph: “It is a broad estimate based on some research I did for my previous book, based on the best available data for the carbon footprint of email.

“Whenever there’s junk in our lives, there’s an opportunity to make life better and save a bit of carbon while we’re at it.

“The carbon happens when you’re at your machine tapping your email out. Then you send it and the network uses some electricity to send it and it will end up being stored in the cloud, which will take up electricity.” The study, commissioned by Ovo Energy, found that 49 per cent of Brits confessed to sending unnecessary emails to a colleague or friend within talking distance every single day.

It also showed that 72 per cent of the UK were unaware of the carbon footprint attached to their inbox.

Prof Berners-lee, brother of Tim, who invented the World Wide Web in 1989, said that emails were just one of many ways humans did not understand the true extent of their carbon footprint: “You’re probably only aware that your computer is using energy, rather than servers or networks as well,” he said.

“Over the past few decades, we have become millions of times more efficient in our ability to send and store information. But the carbon footprint has gone up, not down. Now we are sending millions and millions of times of more information, we are less disciplined about it.

“If we were sending letters, we wouldn’t really think of sending 200 of them to copy 200 people in.”