Carbon Footprint From Damaging Data Use on Par With Commercial Aviation

By AIT News Desk On Jan 27, 2020

The ICT Ecosystem Produces 2% of Global CO2 Emissions 40% of Gen-Z Would Share Computing Power Aviation to Better the Environment

Unnecessary group wide company emails, binge watching the latest true crime documentaries on Netflix, streaming music on Spotify and falling into a cat video black hole on YouTube. Four things we find ourselves doing on a daily basis, yet the majority of us are unaware of the consequences our addiction to the internet has on the environment.

The emissions produced from our digital footprint, within the ICT ecosystem, and our use of the cloud has now put these simple tasks on par with the CO2 emissions being produced by the commercial aviation industry (2%¹ vs 2.6% in 2018²).

Therefore, when the music video for “Despacito” became the first video on YouTube to hit five billion views, the energy used for those streams was the equivalent energy use of 40,000 US homes in a year.

Shared computing power service Cudo Ventures is paving the way and spearheading the charge to create a more sustainable cloud computing industry that resolves some of the waste being created. When it comes to the energy consumption of Cloud Computing, the solution lies with using more sustainable energy sources. However, the real damage is done even before our gadgets and tech are even in our hands, with 53% of the world’s carbon emissions produced from the extraction of raw materials.⁴

Instead of building new hardware, to supply demand that contributes to the ICT ecosystems carbon footprint from extraction of raw materials, Cudo utilises this hardware and computing power that technology users and data centres aren’t taking advantage of.

With 50% of the world’s PCs, laptops and mobile phones running idle at any given time, harnessing their spare processing power rather than building new data centres to meet demand, ensures we can utilise an otherwise wasted IT resource.

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As more of us make greener choices in our lives, a recent study from Cudo found that 40% of Brits like the environmental benefits of sharing existing resources/assets and 40% of Gen-Z would share their existing computer power if it would be better for the environment.

Many have started to be more eco-conscious utilising services through the sharing economy, with half of those surveyed taking part, through renting holiday homes (28%) or car sharing (28%). However, already leading the way, Gen-Z are pioneers of the shared economy, with 86% open to renting out their spare computer power and a staggering 89% already engaging.

The shared economy has positive environmental impacts, through the reduction of total resources required, and making goods and services readily available, emissions are reduced. Successful sharing economy models like Airbnb have reduced the need for more hotels to be built, benefitting the environment from a reduction in construction pollutants.

Cudo Ventures are utilising the shared economy to help share underutilised hardware to those that need it. Not only does this reduce our digital footprint due to the lower amount of hardware needed, but also allows Cudo to provide organisations with up to 10x more cost-effective computing.

Cudo Ventures Founder and CEO, Matt Hawkins said: “Many people are unaware of how many emissions are created by our digital footprint every day, and that number is increasing year on year within the ICT industry. With over 50% of hardware being idle at anyone time, utilising this unused processing power is a cleaner and more sustainable solution to reducing emissions.”

Cudo Ventures provides innovative technology required to deliver the sharing economy model and aims to redefine the economics of computing, utilise data centres to their full capacity and in doing so, help to reduce the growing global emissions problem.