Sustainability in Digitalization
Digitalization has drastically and rapidly changed our lives in recent years. In the process, the enormous carbon footprint of innovations has often been overlooked, as these are not visible to us and multiply quickly.
For example, how much CO2 do we generate daily with our emails? According to estimates by The Guardian, the annual email traffic of a business user has an ecological footprint of 135 kilograms of CO2 equivalents. This is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of an average car traveling 320 kilometers!
However, if we delete read emails and do not continue to store them on a server, it results in far fewer greenhouse gases. A small decision—with a very large impact when viewed across society. And there are many such levers in digitalization and artificial intelligence.
How many kilometers can one drive a car compared to streaming on Netflix? Is TikTok associated with a larger carbon footprint than a medium-haul flight? All of this can be measured and calculated by us. The opportunity lies in incorporating personal branding and social dialogue into sustainability. Only transparency can help us recognize risks and drive changes forward.