Environmental Impact of Our Online Presence
Environmental Impact of Our Online Presence
The purpose of this article is to share the impact of my online presence as well as the online presence of Regeneration, Equity and Justice Grassroots Nonprofit. This research includes all of our social media accounts, Google accounts, and our website.
Over the years, we have simplified and minimized our online footprint by reducing the number of platforms we use and deleting hundreds of gigabytes of stored photo and video content. Generally, as we complete a video project, we delete all content stored online except the final video so we are not storing large quantities of data online. Our goal is to keep our digital presence as small as possible while still reaching millions of people each year through writing, videos (short form and long form), media interviews, and running programs through our nonprofit.
We recognize that even with these efforts, our work online still has a negative impact on the Earth through the usage of advanced technology and the burning of fossil fuels that feed these companies.
A couple of notes:
We are aware that by using Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google we are involved in systems that are substantially exploitative and destructive of life on Earth. We believe that using these platforms is within our best strategy at this point.
We are very intentional about not using Artificial Intelligence (AI). We have not used AI and we intend to continue not to. All of our teammates are instructed to not use AI in the completion of their tasks and we do not hire anyone where AI is their standard mode of operation. Of course, we think it is impossible to avoid all levels of AI because it is deeply embedded in so much of the internet now, however, we are avoiding it wherever possible. In the near future, Robin hopes to write an extension article about his stance with AI.
We are committed to using the internet as an effective tool for positive change while minimizing our destruction to the best of our ability. We are open to hearing from others on how we can continue to reduce our impact and improve. We would love to hear your feedback, which can be submitted through our contact form.
Carbon Impact of Our Digital Storage
We currently have 189 GB of content hosted across all platforms. This storage uses about 19 kWh of electricity per year and produces around 9 kg of CO₂ emissions annually.
To put that into perspective, 9 kilograms of carbon dioxide is equivalent to driving 22 miles in a typical gasoline-powered car.
This is based on industry estimates of 0.1 kWh of electricity per GB per year (Greenly, 2024) and an emission rate of 473 grams of CO₂ per kWh (Ember Climate, 2024). In simple terms, all of our storage combined uses about the same energy as charging a laptop for an hour every day, and the emissions are roughly what one car would emit driving around the block a few times.
Breakdown by Platform
Google Drive
58 GB stored, making it the largest share of our storage footprint at 31% of the total.
2.76 kg CO₂ emitted annually.
Instagram
21 GB of data hosted. We have uploaded 375 photos and 250 videos. That comes out to 1.87 GB for the photos and 18.7 GB for the videos, totaling approximately
0.97 kg CO₂ emitted annually.
Facebook
53 GB of data hosted. ~320 photos totaling 1.6 GB and 258 videos totaling 51.6 GB
2.52 kg CO₂ emitted annually.
YouTube
43 GB of data hosted. ~4,400 minutes of standard video (37 GB), 122 minutes of Shorts (6.1 GB), community posts (0.116 GB)
2.02 kg CO₂ emitted annually.
TikTok
6 GB of data hosted. 118 videos
0.28 kg CO₂ emitted annually.
Website
5 GB is our website’s total data storage.
0.24 kg CO₂ emitted annually.
Canva
2.5 GB of data hosted in photos and graphics.
0.12 kg CO₂ emitted annually.
Emissions by Views of Our Videos
For the first quarter of 2025, our content received around 20 million views, with viewers watching a total of 3.2 million minutes (or about 5,300 hours) of video. This resulted in approximately 1,950 kg of CO₂ emissions.
That’s about the same as running three average homes for an entire month.
An annual emissions estimate based on this quarter would be approximately 8,000 kg of CO₂ emissions.
Platform-Specific Breakdown:
- Facebook had 16.6 million views and 367,000 minutes watched, leading to 290 kg of CO₂.
- YouTube had 500.9K views and 2,465,400 minutes watched, resulting in 1,130 kg of CO₂, which accounts for 58% of all emissions from viewership.
- Instagram had 1.5 million views and 313,367 minutes watched, producing 470 kg of CO₂.
- TikTok, covering a 60-day period, had 30,000 views and 15,000 minutes watched, with 40 kg of CO₂ emitted.