Stop cracking on storage

File storage in data centers accounts for 15% of digital greenhouse gas emissions. In 2020, more than 64 zettabytes of data were created or replicated worldwide (source: IDC), which is equivalent to 1280 billion 50GB blue-ray discs.

What can be done to limit data flows?

Streamline emailing

An e-mail consumes an average of 4g of CO2, especially since it is stored on a server that consumes energy. Some simple advice to put into practice:

• Reduce the number of recipients especially if an attachment is sent. 

• Once a year, delete unnecessary e-mails (newsletters, etc.). 

To be efficient, you can sort by date and size to delete only the oldest emails with attachments (deleting a 1 MB email is equivalent to deleting 200 5 KB emails (typically an "ok" or "thank you" reply email).

• Favour other means such as direct discussion when relevant. 

Do not multiply emails by exporting them to Google accounts

Share cloud links instead of attachments to avoid duplicating files

The institution offers a "FileSender" service from "Belnet" that allows you to attach files up to 200 GB via a link in the e-mail you write. In addition to being alerted when the file is downloaded, the attachment will be deleted from the server after a period of time that can be configured by the user. If the email is dedicated to internal people and if your department / service has a centralized file server, an alternative is to link to a file on the server.

Streamline large file storage

• Set expiration dates for large files (podcasts, videoconference recordings) as close as possible
• In research, in particular: ask yourself the question of the relevance of keeping data from the moment they are acquired and during the evolution of projects

Avoid consumption of non-business critical data traffic and privacy

Streaming (reading an audio or video stream online) is one of the main consumption vectors of the digital sector. It represents more than 60% of data traffic on the Internet and about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions linked to digital uses, i.e. about 1% of global emissions.

It is therefore advisable:

• Adapt the resolution of the video to the screen and to the use of the video (and set these settings as default if possible):
  
  • Prefer web radios to "video" playlists (like Audio only for Youtube) to listen to music.
  • No need to play the video in high definition on a smartphone, a resolution of 240p is enough.
  • On a computer screen, a resolution of 720p is more than enough and can be reduced to 480p for a training video.
• Mute the cameras (or adjust the video quality) during a video conference presentation if the video conference software allows it.
• Block the automatic playback of videos on different platforms and social networks.