In the situation we are all currently facing we are recommended to work from home if it is possible. In order to do that we use electronic mail and different platforms for video conferences. Personally, I have only 3 video calls a week but the amount of e-mails I send and receive is much higher so I decided to count the environmental cost of e-mails.

Powering wireless networks, saving data in cloud storage, powering your PC or smartphone - all these things are necessary to send an e-nail and all these things need electricity. As we know, most electricity in the world is produced by fossil fuels which emit CO₂ while burning. This being said the CO₂ emissions caused by e-mails may vary in different countries depending on the type of energy they use. Thus, a single e-mail can be responsible for up to 50g of CO₂ emitions. According to Mike Berners-Lee, a spam e-mail emits 0.3g, a regular e-mail is responsible for 4g of CO₂, and e-mails with pictures or attachments are accountable for 50g of CO₂. 

Today alone I have received 12 e-mails. Only one of them was important because it was sent by my boss. Another one notified me about the upcoming event I had signed up for. The rest 10 e-mails came from the sources I subscribed to but do not need anymore. Most of those e-mails had pictures or videos in them, only 3 of them consisted of text only. None of those were spam e-mails. Thus, 3 regular e-mails + 9 e-mails with pictures produce 462g of CO2 in total. If we multiply it by 365 we will get 169kg of CO2 per year.

As I said, only two of all those e-mails were important and they were responsible for only 8g of total emitions. It means that I could have had produced 58 times less carbon dioxide if I had cleaned my mailing list and unsubscribed of everything I do not need. This number may not seem like a lot but multiplied by the number of people who use electronic mail today it can seem catastrophic and totally unnecessary.

There are several ways we can lower this number:

1) Unsibcribe of everything you do not need.

2) Include all the information you need in one e-mail.

3) Try to compress images if you have to send one.

4) Add links to files instead of sending attachments.

I encourage everyone to clear their e-mail regularly starting today. Let this report be a sign that it is time to unsubscribe of those e-mails that Facebook or any other annoying site keeps sending you :)

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