Emails might travel very fast around the world. But the act of sending, receiving and storing an email doesn’t happen by magic.
Instead, every email has a carbon footprint as it makes its way from sender to recipient, and often back again if the recipient happens to reply.
Whether you send emails on behalf of your business or are subscribed to different mailing lists, the carbon footprint of email is something everyone needs to know about.
If you never knew that emails generate CO2, here is an overview of the key information from the EcoSend team.
👋 P.S. Please reach out to us if you are reading this post as a business and want to lower the carbon footprint of your email campaigns.
What Is The Carbon Footprint Of Sending An Email?
Every email can generate between 0.3g and 26g of CO2 depending on its weight.
That might sound like a big deal. However, according to Statista, 376 billion emails are sent each day. By 2027, that number is expected to reach 408.2 billion emails per day.
Unfortunately, many people don’t know that their digital activity has a carbon footprint.
Research has found that the amount of CO2 generated by the internet is now more than the aviation industry. This means that if the internet was a country, it would be the 4th largest emitter of CO2.
With so many emails sent per day, they remain a huge part of the problem.
Why Does Email Have A Carbon Footprint?
It takes energy to send, receive and store emails. Most of the time, this energy is generated from fossil fuels which power our devices, plus the servers which transmit emails and also store them.
Another problem is the sheer distance emails have to travel. If you send an email to someone sitting next to you, it’s easy to assume that email has only travelled a few feet.
In reality, every email goes through a chain of servers to complete the journey from sender to recipient. As a result, the actual distance travelled is often far greater than the physical journey between two destinations.
Most email platforms are based in the United States. This means that regardless of where you are located (and where your recipients are based), your emails will have to travel through the servers of your email provider to reach their destination.
How To Lower The Carbon Cost Of Email As A Sender
Segment campaigns rather than sending the same message to everyone
Avoid over communicating with subscribers
Regularly clean your email list
Reduce image files and email template sizes
Use links in place of attachments as much as possible
Be mindful that AI tools have a high carbon footprint
Skip CCing others unless necessary
Switch to a sustainable email platform
How To Lower The Carbon Cost Of Email As A Recipient
Unsubscribe from email campaigns you no longer find useful
Delete old emails regularly
Avoid sending attachments
Limit Cloud syncing
Power your home energy with renewable/greener energy sources
Try Our Email Carbon Calculator
At EcoSend, we’re committed to helping businesses understand and ultimately lower their email carbon footprint.
If you send promotional emails to your customers, you may be interested in seeing how much CO2 your campaigns produce.
Head over to the EcoSend Email Carbon Calculator to get started.
This tool is completely free to use, and can be insightful to learn how much CO2 your business can save by switching to our sustainable email platform!
Make The Switch To EcoSend To Lower Your Email Carbon Footprint ✉️ 🌎
Are you interested in reducing the carbon footprint of your emails?
EcoSend is the world’s first sustainable email platform.
When you join EcoSend, you’ll get all of the features you need to succeed at email marketing. But as our servers run on renewable energy sources, and we plant trees based on your usage, this all helps to make your emails better for the planet.
You’ll also get a badge to display on your website and email footer, to let your subscribers know that your campaigns are now sent via our sustainable email platform!
We’d like to welcome your business to EcoSend by offering you a free 7 day trial on all of our plans.
Or, do you have any questions about EcoSend? Please drop us a message and we’ll be in touch.
