1.2 Gigabytes Saved From Download on Earth Day

On April 22nd, Pacific University recognized Earth Day with a low-energy version of our homepage. In comparison to our typical homepage, yesterday's version took up only 10% of the file size significantly lowering the amount of data that was being transferred when visitors accessed the Pacific website.

Calculating the exact amount of energy we saved is a complex matter; however, we can say that with over 6,000 visitors yesterday, we ended up saving about 1.2 gigabytes (270 KB per visit). Now, your average computer can hold a number of gigabytes, but to put it into perspective this is equivalent to about 2 CD-ROM discs or, in terms of the amount of data that can be held on a printed publication, about one pickup truck bed full of paper. And this is only the amount of data saved on one day by redesigning one web page. Imagine the result if those of us in the Internet industry took sustainability into consideration on a regular basis. The carbon footprint of the web as a whole could be significantly reduced quite easily.

Here at Pacific University, we would like to offer a couple of tips on reducing your own carbon footprint online:

• If you frequently use a particular web page, bookmark it or set it as your browser's homepage. This saves energy by giving you a direct path to the website instead of having to navigate a series of links or search for the information that you need. We recommend that staff and faculty here at Pacific do this instead of using the homepage as a link hub. If you need instructions on how to do so, please contact webmaster@pacificu.edu.

• Think twice about sending an email. If you are in the same building as the person you are communicating with, perhaps your message can be delivered in person. Do you need to hit reply-all when you only need to communicate with one or two people? You can save a lot of energy by cutting back on email, and could possibly increase your personal health by walking to a colleague's office instead of sitting at your desk all day.
  

• Consider whether or not you really need to have data sent from the web to your mobile devices. Doing so not only puts a burden on your phone bill, sending data to your mobile devices is also particularly consuming of energy.
  
  
• When you are able to, choose renewable power. One of the main reasons that the Internet's carbon footprint is so high, is that the electricity that powers it does not come from renewable sources. You can help by choosing renewable energy to power your own computer (if it is available and reasonably priced), and you can choose to do business with companies that use renewable energy. Decreasing the number of data centers and ISPs that get their electricity from coal plants could have a significant, positive impact on our environment.
  

If you have some other ideas related to saving energy online, please leave a comment. We would love to hear from you!