You may not be aware, but...
We wanted to talk about something today that not many people seem to be talking about, and this is the hidden impact that social media has on our climate. Of course, this isn’t to portray hate towards any platforms – the fact is we LOVE social media and what it can offer. (After all, we only have a business because of these very platforms.) At Leadspurt, we love the software and platforms we use, but this shouldn’t take away from the fact we should all be aware of the climate issues that they can have. It is quite easy to forget that when you open TikTok or Facebook, or even Google Analytics, all this data has to be stored somewhere.
Many people aren’t aware that the reason lots of platforms can remain free to use is that the platform allows them to collect huge amounts of data to use for their own benefit or sell. However, with the emergence of smartphones being able to record in 4k, there has been an ever-increasing worry about data centres in regard to storing this data. 4k is much larger than 1080p, and with more and more people having access to smartphones, it means more people join the platforms and even more data has to be stored. This is great, but the impact this is beginning to have on the planet is quite a troubling one.
Big tech companies are moving over to renewable energy to use for their data centres, but the truth is at the moment – it is hardly scratching the surface. With the direction we are headed in, data centres are here to stay for a long time, and if current trends continue, the sheer increase in amounts of data that will need to be stored as time goes on is an ongoing concern.
So, what does that look like?
In a sustainability report Facebook produced in 2020, it announced that it had used 7,17 million megawatt-hours of electricity in that year. 6.966 million megawatt-hours were from their data centres and the rest was used from their offices.
It has been estimated that data centres use in excess of 200 terawatt-hours of electricity every year, which is around 2% of the total global emissions each year. This is only going to increase in the future with higher quality videos and content being uploaded to servers, taking up exponentially more space than before as a result.
This is why it is so important for us tech lovers and users to be aware of the implications it has on the planet, and why we need to do our bit towards creating a sustainable future for many years to come. This way, everyone can continue enjoying tech and share the joys which social media, email and any other service can bring to the plate while connecting people together.
What can we do about it?
At Leadspurt we have partnered with Ecologi to help offset our carbon footprint with their services. We are able to offset our carbon emissions and the more clients we work with the more trees we will plant in order to do our bit for the environment. We have already managed to offset 12t of carbon emissions with the help of Ecologi.
Of course, there are many steps we can take towards making a cleaner environment for everyone and reducing our carbon footprint in general. We are doing our best to make people more aware of this issue and hopefully in turn that will have a large impact on the environment in the future.
So the takeaway from this is simple, we can keep on enjoying the services we all love and use to connect to our friends, family and businesses but it is important we do something to help support the climate impact that these free services have on the planet. This will, in turn, assist with keeping these services free and here to stay for a long time in the future.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and please share this information with people to help make them aware.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Keep up to date with new marketing trends.
