We’ve said it before: browsing the web burns energy. Since internet connectivity is all but essential in the modern workplace, almost every office is emitting carbon just by working online. There’s also the problem of inefficient devices, and computers left on standby. So what’s the solution? Here, in no particular order, are our top five tips for cutting down CO2 from the workday.
1. Switch from wifi to cable internet
Wifi seems like the first choice for internet connectivity, and it’s how most people in offices go online. But when it comes to working from home, which is a persistent trend post-pandemic, there should be the option to plug into the internet via cable to your modem.
Cable internet is much more energy efficient than wifi, which uses radio waves to transmit data. It takes much more energy to send out high-frequency packets of data through the air than it does to send them through a cable. Packet loss is also much higher with wifi (where little bits of data are lost or corrupted).
2. Use a laptop
Since laptops are portable, they rely heavily on batteries. Although battery life has improved over the past decade, laptops still won't survive an entire day of work unplugged (in most cases). However, this limitation has meant manufacturers have made a huge effort to improve the power consumption of laptop components. Big efficiencies have been achieved, which is good news for carbon emissions.
In more precise terms, laptops average an energy consumption of 50-100W, while desktops can be anything from 100-1000+W, depending on the internal components. (GPUs are particularly bad for excess power draw – sorry to all gamers.) Just take a look at a few power specifications for laptop and desktop computers:
67W: MacBook Pro 13
1400W: Mac Pro
65W: Lenovo ThinkBook
260W: Lenovo 'office-style' desktop
So, the numbers tell the story. If you can use a laptop, it’s much lighter on the environment.
3. Don’t empty the browser cache
Your browser cache keeps a library of web pages you’ve visited. The less you clear it, the lighter your carbon emissions, simply because your computer won't have to re-download data from the web. This has the virtue of also improving load times on websites, which saves energy, too. It feels slightly counterintuitive to what we’re sometimes told about large caches “slowing down” computers, but that’s usually a problem with memory space rather than caching.
If you do follow this strategy, please be mindful from a privacy viewpoint that any tracking cookies you’ve accepted when browsing will not be cleared.
4. Avoid cloud software/backups
In general, the software that’s on your computer is going to use less power than cloud services. Image editing, collaborative design platforms and video editing using cloud software are likely to be the worst offenders for carbon emissions. As soon as you send data across the internet to provide the same functionality as you could get locally on your PC, it will generate extra carbon.
If you can do your work on your computer first, and then share it with others (or not share it at all in the cloud), then that's likely to be more efficient.
Constantly syncing files between a user-focused storage solution and your PC is also not ideal. If it’s unclear which files need to be backed up and which don't, excess data will be transferred between a PC and multiple cloud servers.
5. Make sure not to leave devices in sleep mode
This one is obvious: if you leave devices on, they use power. Making sure you shutdown fully instead of leaving in sleep or hibernation will mean your laptop or desktop is saving on energy waste.
PS. Oh, and emails.
On the condition that emails are not sent with attachments or fancy (image-based) signatures, emails are likely to generate very low carbon emissions – less than 0.01gCO2e for a short email by our calculations.
However. Using an email client in your browser instead of native software on your machine can lead to significant carbon emissions. It depends a lot on your email provider but some of the popular choices are not efficient. You can test yours using Neuto’s browser extension.