Brian Barton
Email newsletters can contribute to pollution and carbon emissions. While email newsletters are opt-in subscriptions, they can still be a source of digital pollution, especially when they are unwanted or go unread. The energy required to send, store and transmit emails through data centres contributes to carbon emissions, with each email generating an estimated 4g of CO2, rising to 50g with large attachments. With over 300 billion emails sent daily, including spam and unwanted newsletters, the collective carbon footprint is significant. To reduce email pollution, individuals can unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters, delete old emails, and limit unnecessary emails.
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What You'll Learn
Delete old emails and unsubscribe from newsletters
Emails are a part of our daily lives, but they can also contribute to digital pollution and environmental harm. The infrastructure behind every message, including electricity usage and energy consumption to store and transmit emails through data centres, has an environmental impact. While using email means we are less reliant on paper, which benefits the environment, there are ways to manage your emails more efficiently and reduce your email pollution.
One way to reduce email pollution is to delete old emails. Deleting outdated and irrelevant emails can help free up space on servers and reduce the energy needed to store and maintain them. To delete old emails in bulk, you can use advanced filters and search options offered by email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook. Specify a date range to search for older messages, select all the emails you want to delete, and then click the delete or trash icon. This will move the messages to the Deleted Items folder, from where you can permanently delete them.
Another way to reduce email pollution is to unsubscribe from newsletters and unwanted communications. Many email providers, such as Gmail and Proton Mail, offer unsubscribe buttons or features that allow you to opt out of mailing lists and newsletters. You can also block senders to automatically send their emails to the Spam folder. By unsubscribing from newsletters and unwanted emails, you can reduce the number of messages clogging up your inbox and decrease the energy required to store and transmit them.
Additionally, it is essential to develop good email habits. Avoid sending unnecessary emails and streamline your messages by considering the volume of recipients. Instead of sending thank you" emails, explore alternative communication tools such as Slack, Teams, or Basecamp, which tend to consume less energy. By making conscious choices about sending and receiving emails, you can further reduce your email pollution footprint.
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Avoid sending unnecessary emails
Sending and receiving emails has become an integral part of our daily lives, but it's important to remember that this convenience comes at a cost. The infrastructure behind every email – including electricity usage, data centres, and transmission – contributes to carbon emissions. While a single email's impact on this infrastructure is minimal, the cumulative effect of billions of emails sent daily is significant.
To reduce your contribution to email newsletter pollution, it's essential to avoid sending unnecessary emails. Here are some strategies to achieve this:
Assess the Necessity
Before drafting an email, pause and ask yourself: "Is this email necessary?" If the information can be conveyed through a conversation or a quick chat platform like Slack, opt for that instead. Consider whether the recipient needs to be aware of the information or if they need to take action. This simple question can help reduce the volume of unnecessary emails.
Streamline Communication
When sending emails, be concise and keep messages brief. Avoid lengthy emails that can be summarised in a few key points. If you need to reference other emails, use the 'Reply' function to keep the thread organised and avoid duplicating content. Additionally, instead of attaching large documents, hyperlink files or information held online to reduce data transfer.
Mindful Addressing
When addressing emails, be mindful of who truly needs to be included. Avoid sending emails to large groups unless necessary. Respect your stakeholders' time by only involving those who need to respond, review, or be kept in the loop. This will not only reduce the number of emails sent but also minimise the back-and-forth responses.
Prioritise and Categorise
Implement a system to categorise and prioritise your emails. Use tools that allow you to set rules based on the subject, sender, or other criteria to automatically sort your emails. This helps you manage your inbox more efficiently and reduces the urge to send unnecessary follow-up emails. You can also use priority levels (high, medium, low) to indicate the urgency or importance of an email, ensuring that your stakeholders can manage their time effectively.
Break Free from Email Chains
Sometimes, email chains can become never-ending. If you find yourself in a lengthy back-and-forth, consider picking up the phone or having a video call to resolve the issue. Face-to-face or telephonic conversations can often be more efficient and help prevent a flood of emails.
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Use anti-spam tools
Spam emails contribute significantly to email newsletter pollution, with an estimated 88.9 billion spam emails sent per day, making up 49% of email traffic. To reduce the number of spam emails you receive, you can use various anti-spam tools and strategies.
Firstly, it is important to understand how spam filters work so that you can avoid having your emails flagged as spam. Familiarize yourself with spam laws and the requirements of anti-spam legislation such as the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States and Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Avoid using deceptive headers, from names, reply-to addresses, or subject lines, and always include a functional unsubscribe link.
To test whether your emails might be flagged as spam, you can use tools such as GlockApps, MailTester, and the Spamhaus Domain Block List (DBL). These tools can help you identify if your emails contain any spammy language or links that might trigger spam filters.
Additionally, you can use email authentication tools such as Google Postmaster to monitor your reputation when sending emails to Gmail accounts. This tool assesses sending domains and IPs, ensuring that your emails are less likely to be marked as spam.
By utilizing these anti-spam tools and following best practices, you can help reduce email newsletter pollution and improve the chances of your legitimate emails reaching your intended audience.
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Hyperlink files instead of attaching
Sending emails contributes to global carbon emissions. The infrastructure behind every message, including electricity usage and energy to store and transmit emails through data centres, is substantial. Data centres, for instance, require air conditioning to prevent overheating. According to Berners-Lee's book, The Carbon Footprint of Everything, a typical email has a carbon footprint ranging from 0.03g to 26g of CO2 emissions. This can increase to 50g with large attachments.
To reduce email newsletter pollution, one effective method is to hyperlink files instead of attaching them directly to the email. This approach offers several advantages:
- Reduced storage space and bandwidth usage: Hyperlinked files do not occupy storage space in the recipient's mailbox or device. This is especially beneficial for individuals with data caps or limited bandwidth, as they won't need to download large attachments. Additionally, when emails with large attachments are forwarded multiple times within an organisation, each copy consumes the full space of the attachment, whereas links do not incur this issue.
- Enhanced security: Links can provide an extra layer of security for sensitive information. With certain file storage systems, senders can enable password protection or set links to expire after a certain date or number of clicks. This prevents unauthorised access and allows senders to revoke access at any time.
- Flexibility and convenience: Hyperlinks to files stored in cloud services, such as OneDrive or Adobe Cloud Storage, allow senders to make changes to the file that recipients can access without resending the email. This ensures that recipients always have access to the most recent version of the file.
- Reduced carbon emissions: By avoiding large attachments, you can help minimise carbon emissions associated with sending emails. This is particularly significant when considering the cumulative impact of email attachments on the environment.
However, it is important to consider potential drawbacks, such as the risk of "training" clients to follow links, which could make them more susceptible to phishing or malware attacks if they are not security-aware. Additionally, some recipients may prefer receiving attachments for offline access or convenience. Therefore, it is essential to assess the context and preferences of your audience when deciding between attaching files or providing hyperlinks.
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Choose efficient communication methods
While emails are an essential part of communication in the 21st century, their unsustainable and careless use can have a negative impact on the environment. By adopting an email-first culture, organisations can reduce cognitive load and increase efficiency by providing asynchronous flexibility and traceability. Here are some ways to choose efficient communication methods to reduce email newsletter pollution:
Adopt an email-first culture
Adopting an email-first culture does not mean eliminating meetings. Instead, it helps create a workplace ecosystem where communication is purposeful and focused. Emails allow team members to respond when it suits their workflow, reducing the pressure of real-time interaction. This is especially beneficial for global teams working across different time zones. Emails also serve as a written record, providing clarity on tasks, decisions, and commitments.
Train employees to write effective emails
Poor email project management and communication often lead to unnecessary meetings. Help team members write concise, actionable emails with clear subject lines to reduce back-and-forth clarifications. Leverage templates and automation to standardise routine communication for status updates or meeting recaps. Adopt a '24-hour rule' for meeting requests, encouraging team members to attempt resolving issues via email or asynchronous tools before requesting a meeting.
Use alternative communication tools
While email is a useful communication tool, it is not always the best choice. For urgent responses, use channels like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Groups instead of email to ensure timely communication. These tools enable real-time communication and face-to-face meetings, improving overall efficiency and collaboration. Messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger are also estimated to be less polluting than sending an email, especially when sending plain text without gifs, emojis, or images.
Streamline emails
Keep messages as brief as possible and only send emails when necessary. Hyperlink files or information held online instead of attaching large documents. Only subscribe to the news services you want and regularly clean out your mailbox, including your inbox, junk, sent, and trash folders.
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Frequently asked questions
Sending emails causes CO2 emissions, contributing to the carbon footprint of an individual or company. The carbon footprint of an email depends on the device used, the time taken to write and read it, and the inclusion of pictures, attachments, or signatures. The electricity used to power devices and transmit information through data centres also contributes to the carbon footprint of an email.
According to Mike Berners-Lee, a typical year of incoming mail adds 300 pounds of emissions to a person's carbon footprint, or the equivalent of driving 200 miles in an average car. The carbon footprint of an email ranges between 0.03g and 26g of CO2 emissions, increasing to 50g with large attachments.
Email newsletters contribute to climate change by increasing the carbon footprint of an individual or company, which leads to higher greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, emails are estimated to contribute about 0.3% of the world's carbon footprint, which is expected to grow with increasing internet usage.
To reduce pollution caused by email newsletters, you can delete old emails, unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters, and avoid sending large attachments by using links to documents instead. Regularly emptying your recycle bin and spam folder can also help reduce the amount of CO2 produced by email systems.
Reducing email newsletter pollution can help lower your carbon footprint and contribute to the fight against climate change. It can also improve productivity by reducing interruptions and the time spent dealing with emails, resulting in increased efficiency and potential cost savings for companies.
