In this age of streaming and remote work, the environmental impact of digital technology is not negligible. Those who wish to do so can easily adopt a greener approach with some simple everyday actions.

Manage the power consumption of connected devices

To consume less energy with your computer or smartphone, try lowering the screen brightness, opting for a "night” mode (which gives a dark background to most applications) and setting the screen to go to sleep after just a few minutes. Don't forget to switch off GPS and Bluetooth connectivity when they're no longer needed, and WiFi as soon as you leave the house.

Keep your hardware for as long as it works

Still on the subject of hardware, it's obviously advisable to keep devices for as long as possible before recycling them (by giving them to someone or to an organization that will take care of recovering what can be recycled) or by renewing them, if possible by buying second-hand (reconditioned).

Favour WiFi

When it comes to connectivity, at home, whatever your connected device, try to give preference to WiFi over a 4G (or 5G) connection. In fact, watching a video over WiFi rather than the mobile network consumes up to 23 times less energy, according to the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME).

Adjust streaming quality

Unsurprisingly, streaming is typically the most energy-intensive usage. By slightly lowering the image quality via the settings of your favorite streaming platform, you'll help reduce the power consumption associated with your viewing habits. Another simple action is to stop the next episode from playing automatically. It's also better to download content and watch it later than to stream it directly.

Manage your emails

The more emails you receive and store in your inbox, the more energy your dedicated servers consume. So it's best to delete all messages that are no longer of any use or which are too old, and to unsubscribe from newsletters that are no longer needed. You should also opt for group messages rather than sending the same message several times to a single recipient, especially if one or more attachments are included.

Keep on top of your content in the cloud

As for all the content you store in the cloud (documents, audio files, images, videos, etc.), don't hesitate to do a thorough clear-out on a regular basis to determine what you need to keep and what's no longer useful.

 - AFP Relaxnews