If you don’t need to be on camera during those zoom meetings for work, do the planet a favor and keep your camera turned off.
A new study that looked at the global effect that the pandemic has had on the world found that despite a record drop in carbon emissions in 2020, the shift to a work-from-home environment has still had a significant impact on our planet. This is mainly due to how internet data is stored and transferred. According to the study, just one hour of videoconferencing or streaming emits anywhere from 150-1,000 grams of carbon dioxide, requires 2-12 liters of waters and demands a land area adding up to about the size of an iPad mini (for comparison, a gallon of gasoline burning from a car emits about 8,887 grams).
However, if you leave your camera off during a web call, you can reduce this footprint by 96 percent. Similarly, streaming content in standard definition rather than high definition while using apps like Netflix or Hulu could also bring an 86 percent reduction, researchers estimated.
Carbon, Water and Land Footprints
The study was the first to analyze water and land footprints associated with internet infrastructure in addition to carbon footprints, and it comes at a time when many countries are reporting at least a 20 percent increase in internet traffic since March. If the trend continues throughout 2021, this increased internet use alone would require a forest of about 71,600 square miles to sequester the emitted carbon. Additionally, the amount of additional water needed in the processing and transmission of data would be enough to fill more than 300,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, while the resulting land footprint would be about equal the size of Los Angeles.
Essentially, the more video used through streaming devices and smartphone apps, the larger the carbon footprint.
“Banking systems tell you the positive environmental impact of going paperless, but no one tells you the benefit of turning off your camera or reducing your streaming quality,” said Kaveh Madani, who led and directed this study as a visiting fellow at the Yale MacMillan Center. “So without your consent, these platforms are increasing your environmental footprint.”
The team also found that the processing and transmitting of internet data in the U.S. has a carbon footprint that is 9 percent higher than the world median, however water and land footprints are 45 percent and 58 percent lower, respectively. Clearly, we can still make strides in reducing our carbon, water and land footprints, and maybe that begins by turning off our web cameras during meetings when we don’t need to be on screen!