PENCINTA ALAM FEBRUARY 2021
GREEN LIVING COLUMN
REDUCING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF YOUR INTERNET USE
(Compiled and edited by Wong Ee Lynn.
Sources: https://youmatter.world/en/reduce-environmental-impact-internet/
and
https://youmatter.world/en/laptops-save-energy-batteries-28023/)
The Internet has completely changed how we communicate,
work, get entertained, informed, or do our shopping. But the truth is that the
Internet also has a huge impact on our planet.
Manufacturing cellphones, laptops, and other types of
devices and equipment means extracting (and separating or transporting) rare
earth minerals from the Earth. Further, data centres that represent the “cloud”
have a high energy consumption rate, due to the storage and the permanent flow
of data. The Internet was estimated to emit 600 million tonnes of CO2 a year in
2015 – as much as the world’s total civil aviation emissions.
Here are some simple tips to reduce the impact
of your internet usage on the environment.
1 – Keep Your
Laptop and Other Digital Equipment For Longer Periods
The manufacturing of our laptops, smartphones, and
digital devices has a far bigger environmental footprint than how we use them.
By extending the life of our equipment, we can reduce the
high environmental cost of replacing and disposing of our devices. We need to
take better care of our equipment, for example, by using phone screen
protectors and protective casings, not leaving devices in places where they may
be stolen or dropped from a height, not leaving devices in wet or damp areas or
in hot cars, not overcharging devices, and keeping devices clean and covered to
protect them from dust, dirt, and pet hair.
If you can use your laptop for 8 years instead
of 3-4 years, and your smartphone for at least 4 years instead of 2 years, you
can halve the environmental impact of your devices.
2 – Reduce Video Streaming
Streaming, that is, the transfer of real-time
data for videos, often viewed in high-definition quality, has a very high
energy consumption rate. One of the best ways to reduce your internet energy
consumption would be to limit the use of streaming and reduce unnecessary and
mindless viewing.
If you are a web designer or social media page admin, try
to avoid creating webpages with videos that launch automatically. Most page
visitors will scroll past or put it on mute anyway, so it is better to have an
effective image or poster than a video clip.
Find ways to consume media without video streaming, for
example, by listening to music, podcasts, or audiobooks, on platforms that give
you the option of downloading or streaming only the audio files without videos.
3 – Reconsider Cloud and Online Storage
Online storage solutions, such as the Cloud,
consume more energy than storing data on your device or into a thumbdrive. Each
photo or data you store online must be permanently preserved on a server that
needs to be powered. And every time you want to access this data, you have to
exchange data with this server which consumes still more energy – both on your
terminal, and via the network.
Therefore, do not store all your data in the Cloud. Opt
for local storage whenever possible, and transfer photos and files from your
phone to your laptop or a storage device such as a thumbdrive for storage and
preservation purposes.
4 – Learn How To Use Your Equipment
Better
Most consumers leave their internet router turned on
during the night, which consumes energy pointlessly. Unless specifically
advised against it by your service provider, switch your router off at night.
Many consumers also continue to use 4G at home or in the
office instead of their home or office wi-fi, but browsing wi-fi consumes much
less energy than browsing the mobile network. Whenever possible, choose wi-fi
navigation.
5 – Manage Your Emails Better (Without Deleting
Them)
To reduce energy waste, we need to manage our
emails. This does not mean deleting them, as once sent, removing it does
not have a big impact on the overall carbon footprint of our internet use. According
to Frédéric Bordage of GreenIT.fr, there are 5 actions we can take:
- Send
fewer emails and limit the number of recipients to those on a need-to-know
basis;
- Write
emails in text format rather than HTML (12 times less heavy and therefore
less energy consuming);
- Avoid
attachments and email signatures, especially images that weigh down emails;
- Unsubscribe
from the newsletters you’re no longer reading; and
- Do
not print your emails, as this wastes energy as well as paper.
6. Take Care of Your Laptop to Save Energy and its Battery Life.
Up till a few years ago, it was still advisable to
disconnect computers or other devices on mains because of
the fear that batteries would get overcharged by the continuous
consumption of electricity. Today, manufacturers
and tech companies confirm that modern equipment is designed to
stop charging once the battery is full. Although overcharging batteries
may not necessarily waste electricity, we need to know if this will have an
impact on the battery life.
According to several experts such as Green IT and Battery
University, there is a method to extend the batteries’ life when charging
them: avoiding extreme cycles. This means not leaving the battery of your
devices get to really low levels before charging it.
For example, Battery University says that a battery
charged to 70% will get 1,200-2,000 discharge cycles, while a fully charged
battery will have only 300-500 discharge cycles. In this way, ideally, you
should avoid letting your battery drain too much (and keep it above 20-30%) but
also avoid reaching 100% charge. It is therefore desirable that batteries
are always charged between 40-80%.
When using a computer that is frequently connected to a
mains supply, it is recommended to set a maximum load of 80% to prevent the
battery from being full at all times. Also, avoid letting your laptop’s battery
get completely discharged. These best practices will prolong the life of your
battery — in some cases by as much
as 4 times.
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