Small steps we can take to make the digital environment greener.

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You've all heard of the carbon footprint, but what about the digital carbon footprint? The digital carbon footprint is all the emissions generated by online activity via digital technologies.  
 
It may not be something you've considered much before, but there are small things you can do that will have a big impact on reducing our collective digital carbon footprint.  

Let’s talk about it: the internet pollutes the environment.   
 
The internet uses a lot of energy. Any digital activity, such as searching and browsing the internet, sending an email or uploading images generates CO2 emissions. The cloud also has a big part to play in this. The data we store in the cloud is materialised in data centres and vast servers. These centres and servers need huge amounts of energy to run and to support the internet.  

Small steps you can take:    
 
Instead of cloud storage, use local storage such as USB sticks and hard drives whenever you can. We understand that this is not always an option at work for security and sharing reasons, but think if it could be a solution for other things, for example, photos and videos.  
 

• Search the web with Ecosia. Ecosia uses search ads that generate income for Ecosia that then uses this income to plant trees.    ​
• Delete your emails! And unsubscribe from email newsletters that no longer interest you   

   
Design can be greener...via accessibility!   

Design for accessibility is sustainable and eco-friendly because clean, easy to use designs reduce the data transfer. This reduces energy use , which in turn reduces gas emissions.    
 
Small steps you can take:    

• Consider your colour palette: a high contrast ratio in the colour will translate well online.   
• Limit your font usage: try not to use more than 1 or 2 fonts, because the more you use, the heavier your page size becomes (particularly if you use customised fonts). Using fonts that are readable by everyone, on every device, reduces data transfer.   

 
Think of sustainable content.   
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The heavier the content on your website, the heavier the data transfer and the more energy used. Every video, image, icon and piece of copy has an impact on your page weight and, eventually, the planet.   
 
So try to approach content in a sustainable way with these small steps:    

• Videos are heavy. Think about whether the audience will get value from a video, or whether concise text and an image will work just as well.  
• Reduce the weight of the images you upload online.    
• Write clear, short and concise text copy to convey information. This has the added benefit of getting information over faster to your audience.    

   
If you've read up to this point, you'll understand how every tiny interaction or action on the web has an impact on the environment. This is a really important thing to be mindful of (and share) as we add more and more devices to our day to day lives.  

​In this blog, i've shared the small steps that are most important to me, but there are so many other small things you can do to make a change. If you’re interested in this topic, I’d recommend checking out this article: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/internet-carbon-footprint.   
   
Thank you for reading :)   
 
Morgane  
UX Designer at This is Milk 

If you have any thoughts, i'd love to hear from you. You can contact me on Linkedin or at [email protected]. I also host a podcast called Fairtales about discrimination in the work place - follow me on instagram @fairtales.podcast 
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