"Unread Emails 999+" Took 1 Hour to Delete... How It Helped Prevent 'Carbon Emissions'

0.3~50g CO2 Emissions per Email
Linked to 'Data Center' Power Consumption
Small Daily Actions Help Earth's Environment

A total of 13,818 emails were piled up in the reporter's Naver mailbox without being organized. Photo by Hwang Sumi choko216@asiae.co.kr

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] "First, start by deleting emails..."

Is there a way to engage in environmental activities in daily life without setting aside extra time? The answer is to organize the emails that have piled up to the point where you can't even read them immediately. This single action can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that harm the Earth's environment. By reducing the heat and electricity used by the servers storing emails, carbon emissions can naturally be decreased in the process.

Looking into the reporter's mailbox, it was 80% full of total capacity. This was due to leaving countless emails accumulated, from work-related emails to various notices and spam.

The decision was made to clean up unnecessary emails. The emails accumulated in the mainly used Naver account totaled 13,818. In terms of storage, this amounted to 4.01GB.

Emails stored since April 2015 were sorted one by one. Most of them remained unread. Only necessary materials were kept or backed up, and the rest were all sent to the trash. Advertising spam emails were also blocked in advance.

It took about 1 hour and 19 minutes to organize the mailbox. The neck became stiff and the wrists ached. In total, 13,585 emails were deleted. Calculating 4g of CO2 per email, this reduced approximately 54kg of carbon dioxide. This is equivalent to planting 8.2 trees.

I personally organized unnecessary emails accumulated in my Naver mailbox. Photo by Sumi Hwang choko216@asiae.co.kr

◆ How does organizing emails reduce carbon emissions?

Emails transmitted through the network are stored in data centers. Data centers are places composed of tens of thousands of servers. They mainly handle the storage and processing of data connected to the internet.

Just like books are shelved in a library, semiconductors and electronic devices are built like factories. Global big tech companies such as Meta and Google are building such facilities across Europe. In Korea, they have been constructed in Chuncheon City, Gangwon Province, and Sejong Special Self-Governing City.

These facilities operate 24 hours a day, emitting tremendous heat while maintaining a certain temperature below a set level. This process requires large-scale power supply. Additionally, electricity is used to operate cooling devices to lower the heated facility temperature.

According to Bloomberg News, data centers installed within the European Union (EU) accounted for 2.7% of the region's power demand as of 2018. The more data accumulates, the more power is needed to store it. In other words, the more unnecessary emails pile up, the more electricity is consumed, increasing carbon dioxide emissions and impacting the Earth.

The amount of carbon dioxide emitted by emails can also be quantified. According to Professor Mike Burners-Lee, who researched environmental fields at Lancaster University in the UK, a typical email emits 4g of carbon dioxide per message. If there are attachments such as photos or videos, emissions increase up to 50g. Advertising spam emails also generate 0.3g of carbon dioxide.

According to the Korea Internet & Security Agency, in 2021 alone, 25.04 million spam emails were distributed to domestic users. Approximately 7.5 tons of carbon dioxide were inadvertently emitted just from spam. Therefore, it seems necessary to regularly empty the email trash as part of management. However, based on experience, one should be careful not to delete important emails while deleting hastily.

A factory emitting various exhaust fumes. [Image source=Yonhap News]

◆ Local governments and companies advancing carbon neutrality... Kakao's 'Everyone's Action' and more

Some local governments and information technology (IT) companies have already launched large-scale eco-friendly campaigns using this method. Notably, Kakao started the action participation project 'Everyone's Action' in June. The purpose is to reduce carbon emissions through small habits in daily life. The project is conducted through voluntary participation, where users delete unnecessary emails and empty the trash in their mailboxes and leave supportive messages for the environment.

Setting Eco Mode in Daum or Kakao Mail is also considered an eco-friendly action. Eco Mode shortens the storage period of spam emails from the existing 15 days to 7 days. After 7 days, spam emails are automatically deleted. This reduced storage period is said to decrease carbon emissions accordingly.

Google plans to inform users about the greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprint) resulting from using its services such as Gmail and Google Docs. According to Bloomberg News, Google Cloud plans to introduce this system to individual users in early 2023. It will measure carbon emissions from service usage such as emails and help reduce them.