From Guest Blogger David Price: Is the Internet Eco Friendly? How Green is the Web?

When my bills come due at the end/beginning of each month (who am I kidding, I don’t always pay them on time), I start thinking about how eco friendly or green the internet is. I see payment notifications and bill reminders appear in my email inbox and am reminded of just a few years ago when my physical mailbox (remember that one out by the road?) was consistently filled with pointless bank account statement printouts, credit card statements and general junk mail that was sometimes barely even opened before being thrown away. Just thinking about all of the paper that was saved by the rise of email marketing and paperless billing statements makes me feel pretty good about the internet, and may even lead me to calling the web eco friendly, possibly even green… right?

Eco Friendly Paperless Online Statements: Is the Internet Green?

Thinking about all of the trees that are saved by the rise of paperless statements and the ability to pay bills online may lead many to argue that the internet is in fact eco friendly. According to this article on the benefits of going paperless, opting for paperless billing can save 1 tree from being cut down every year per household. (There were around 120 million households in the US as of 2011, so that’s a lot of trees!) Instead of planting a tree to show off your environmentally friendly side, you could just switch over to paying bills online and prevent one from being cut down! Saving trees is pretty eco-friendly, but are paperless online statements enough to label the internet as clean tech? According to Michael Henley, the CEO of the clean tech satellite internet service Calera, companies also need to embrace paperless solutions. “Ordinary citizens are switching over to paperless bills, so there’s no excuse for other businesses to not adapt paperless practices inside the workplace, too,” Henley states.

The Web & Energy Waste: Not So Good for the Environment…

While it’s easy to get stuck on the good, eco friendly ways in which cyberspace affects our environments, it’s just as easy to forget about the bad stuff. While the rise of the Internet may have decreased the number of trees cut down to create unopened junk mail, the internet has increased the amount of many other unnecessary forms of waste. A report done by CNN revealed that internet technology now accounts for more than 2 percent of the world’s total energy use. More electricity used means more CO2 emissions, which means those trees saved by paperless statements might still be in trouble. In a controversial article published on The Telegragh, a research firm claimed that two Google searches produces the same amount of carbon dioxide as “boiling a kettle.” While Google firmly denied the firm’s allegations, it’s hard to deny that the internet doesn’t come without its drawbacks, at least in terms of costs to the environment.

Is the Internet Good or Bad?

The question of whether or not the internet is eco friendly is definitely open to debate. While it’s easy to form an argument either way at this point, time will tell the overall effect of the internet on our environment. One thing that might increase the eco-friendliness of the internet in the future is the rise of telecommuting. While only a fraction of US workers currently work from home, an increase in the growing popularity of telecommuting could cut down on the CO2 emissions required for workers to commute to and from their workplace, definitely improving the internet’s green image.