Do you get just as excited as we do about reducing your digital carbon footprint? Deleting old emails, using decentralised messengers and mobile apps—there are many opportunities to make your digital world more sustainable. Producing hardware is responsible for the largest proportion of CO2 emissions. So, we advise using your devices for as long as possible, using refurbished hardware and choosing a sustainable computer model.
Besides hardware, it’s also worth focusing on how you use your smartphone and laptop. Processing data in data centres and using transmission networks consumes more energy than you’d think.
Why does mobile data consume energy?
We interviewed Miriam Ruhenstroth from the Institute of Technology and Journalism about the proportion of trackers and advertising in Android apps and their associated energy consumption. We discussed how power consumption can increase if mobile apps have too many adverts and trackers. But Miriam also shared why app power consumption is on the rise in the first place.
Her study is based on an investigation by the Federal Environment Agency, which was the first to reliably measure electricity consumption in the transmission grid. This work enabled Miriam and her team to understand how much electricity an app consumes. An app’s power consumption comes from mobile phone masts, internet distribution boxes and, of course, data centres. All are triggered by the app’s functions, as well as trackers and ads. The energy consumption of data centres is so high that IP expert Dr Ralph Hintemann believes a large portion of our digital energy use will be attributed to them in the future.
We should therefore design apps and data centres with sustainability in mind. But according to studies, the opposite is happening. These days, the cost of data transfer is very cheap due to flat rates. This means that users and developers have little incentive to save data. According to Ruhenstroth, this can be recognised simply because older apps are often programmed to be more data-efficient.
Even if companies and developers opt for sustainable programming, this is likely because of corporate digital responsibility or a wider sustainability strategy. But sustainable programming offers many advantages for companies. We will cover green coding and other sustainable programming practices in other articles. Today, we’re sharing what users can do to save data.
Reduce mobile data usage and use offline mode
Users should always favour Wi-Fi over mobile data. This is because mobile networks require much more power than internet connections. Despite this, manufacturers add a mechanism to their devices that automatically switches their connection to a mobile network if Wi-Fi is slow.
We therefore advise turning off the setting that automatically switches your connection to a mobile network. In the screenshots in this article, we show how to do this for iOS and Android devices.
As well as changing the system settings of your mobile, you can also restrict the data usage for each app. Streaming apps such as Netflix, Spotify or YouTube send a particularly large amount of data via the transmission network. Users can limit their mobile data usage in the settings of their mobile phone operating system and generally lower the streaming quality. If the Wi-Fi connection drops, the apps will no longer automatically switch to a mobile connection.
If you still want to watch music, films and videos on the go, you can download the desired content at home via Wi-Fi.
The same applies to other data-intensive services. For example, map services such as Google Maps or Apple Maps, as well as mobile games that outsource computing power to servers. Map services can usually make routes available offline, so they require less data from the mobile network when you’re on the move. Mobile games also offer functions that allow them to be played completely offline, apart from adverts and trackers.
Wi-Fi networks are generally more energy-efficient
You can completely block certain apps from using mobile data in the app settings. You can also follow the process we outline in the screenshots in this article. Of course, every smartphone also offers the option of completely turning off mobile data when you’re on the move.
Mobile networks are no longer the only way to access the internet while travelling. The Wifi4EU service lists free Wi-Fi networks in the region. While public Wi-Fi networks have a good carbon footprint, they are not the safest way to access the internet. It is a little safer to surf on the move with the hotspots of established mobile phone providers such as Vodafone or Deutsche Telekom. Depending on your mobile phone contract, these hotspots can be used free of charge.
Prevent trackers and advertising
Last but not least, we would like to advise you to free your smartphone from adverts and trackers. Of course, this can be done using ad blockers, which suppress adverts in mobile browsers, for example. The Topio service also explains how data trackers, which are present in many apps, can be blocked by making special adjustments to the DNS server.
How can we ensure a green digital future?
Growing e-waste, carbon emissions from AI, data centre water usage—is rampant digitalisation compatible with a healthy planet? Our latest project explores how digital tools and services can be developed with sustainability in mind.
Topio, which we visited at its location in Berlin’s Arminiusmarkthalle, also offers Google and tracker-free smartphones with alternative Android operating systems. These mobile phones also have a longer update guarantee than manufacturers’ operating systems and therefore also run on older devices. You can find a list of compatible devices with the LineageOS operating system via the link.
Of course, it is by no means necessary to buy a Google-free mobile phone to reduce your mobile data consumption. As with other aspects of the digital carbon footprint, becoming aware of data and its environmental impact is already a big step. Limiting the video quality when streaming video, downloading large content via Wi-Fi or saving the map data of your hometown on your device are already good ways to reduce your digital carbon footprint!
