How green is IT

Whilst we are all surfing the web and watching streaming films online, does anyone really realise and stop to think about the impact on the environment or how green the IT industry really is? Well some new figures recently published may surprise and shock some of you that may come across this article. A recent article said that watching one film at home, streaming from a provider like Netflix costs the roughly the same as running 2-3 incandescent light bulbs. This power usage is in additional to the power consumed at the data centre providing these streaming services. With all the news about climate change and how we should all be aware of our carbon footprint, there is a lot to be done to reduce emissions in this industry, which is now comparable to the aviation industry in terms of CO2 emissions.  This is additional to the power consumed at the data centre providing these streaming services.

The industry is undergoing a dramatic growth spurt since the 2000 .com boom contributing about 0.3% of global CO2 emissions. Data centres are estimated to currently consume at least 1% of the world’s electricity every year, a figure that is expected to rise dramatically in the future. Although there is legislation that is being put into place to try and curb emissions, it may be too little too late. So next time you are streaming a video or downloading a huge file from the web, understand that you are contributing to the global CO2 emissions.

We here at Webdezign have been considering how we can help curb this emissions phenomena and came up with an idea to switch our lights off during the day (already LED powered) and stop streaming so many videos from Netflix or the likes, but to spend more time outdoors with our families and animal friends. What can you do to help?