How to reduce your digital carbon footprint

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03 Sep 2025

by Elaine Marie Harrison

2025-09-03

Given the climate emergency, most of us are keen to reduce our impact on the environment. But what can we do to make a difference?

The impact of our use of digital technologies on the environment is considerable. The Institution of Environmental Sciences estimates that the digital sector contributes 4.75% of UK greenhouse gas emissions. Zero Waste Scotland say that your online activity in a week could produce 8.62kg of CO2 – as much as a domestic flight.

Turn it off when finished

One easy thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint is to fully turn off your computer when you are not using it. Shut it down and turn off the mains power.

Turn off your video in meetings

As much as I like to see other people during meetings, turning off your video in an online meeting will significantly reduce the carbon footprint, as reported in this article on ScienceDirect. If you need to use video, consider lowering the video resolution.

Reduce your data storage

When we say that our files are ‘in the cloud’, it sounds like they are floating somewhere and not having an impact on the ground! The truth is far from that. Cloud storage is when files are held in remote servers. Most of these servers are in large data centres which consume vast quantities of electricity and use prodigious amounts of water for cooling. This all adds to our digital carbon footprint. And many files that we store are never looked at again.

So how can you reduce your own data storage? Here are some practical steps for you to consider:

Send fewer emails and avoid attaching files if possible. You can link to a file instead.
Delete as you go along. Especially for large files like photos and videos that you are unlikely to look at again.
Avoid duplication of data.
Use retention policies on files and email folders to automatically delete content after a certain period of time (Microsoft – retention policies for emails, Microsoft – Apply retention labels to files).
Take part in Digital Cleanup Day.

Responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Using AI is contributing significantly to our digital carbon footprint, and its impact is increasing rapidly. While we’re unlikely to stop using AI, we can (and should) strive to use AI in a responsible manner, with an awareness of environmental impacts.

Some types of AI have more impact than others. Generative AI models, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, consume a lot of energy, particularly because training the models requires a lot of data input. Generating images may use a bit more energy than generating text (see article in Nature). However, an article from MIT Technology Review suggests that generating images may use less energy, since image generators work with fewer parameters than large text models. The MIT article also tells us that generating videos with AI is particularly energy hungry – you may use more than 700 times the energy needed to create a high-quality image.

You can reduce your AI carbon footprint by minimising your numbers of queries. The Association for Learning Technology suggest a method for creating more effective prompts, to reduce the number of follow up questions you need to ask.

AI can be used to reduce our digital carbon footprint, for example in helping to research sustainable electricity generation.

Despite considerable research, the carbon footprint of AI is still not very well understood. That is partly because large corporations are refusing to share information on energy usage of their AI models, as discussed in this article in Nature - How much energy will AI really consume? The good, the bad and the unknown.