The carbon footprint of emails
Written by Ray Stephens
Too often, sustainability is seen as a cost to business, but what if it could actually save money and the planet?
It’s absolutely possible to align your environmental aspirations with a digital strategy that delivers real business value. Here's one example of how we are doing just that...
Email marketing, you will not be surprised to learn, has a substantial carbon footprint. It may however be a vital part of your marketing strategy and it goes without saying, it's a vital communication tool.
However, there are some simple methods to reducing the CO2 emissions from sending email communications:
- Reduce the volume sent by ensuring that marketing campaigns are targeted to their audience
Lighten the weight of the contents of each communication – by keeping emails as short as possible, optimising images and keeping alt text descriptions short and concise
For those sending large volumes of email marketing regularly, the concept known as the “Email Expiration Date” initiative may be of interest. This project is based on the idea of reducing the carbon footprint of the email marketing industry, where a significant proportion of emails become obsolete within days of their receipt. Think of promotions that are only valid for a few days. These emails take up space in data centres and consume energy for storage, unless they are deleted soon after their expiration date. Hence this initiative is proposing that all senders of marketing emails indicate when their emails become obsolete and include an expiration date that the email delivery chain can action. Find out which mailbox providers are supporting this initiative and how you can get involved.
How about the dozens of emails we receive every day? This year, the world is currently counting 347.3 billion emails each day, which marked a 29% rise compared to 2017. Surprisingly or not, more than half of these emails are categorized as spam. And not all emails are weighted equally, as this graph from The Green Solutions shows:
So, what are the future email habits you should be adopting?
- Avoid long chain emails
- Don't cc people in that you don't need to
- Where you can, link to files in the cloud rather than send bulky attachments
- Optimise your email signature with small image files, and turn your signature off for replies or forwards
- Think before you thank - do you reply if all you have to say is “Thank you”?
Pivoting back to "saving money", obviously, reducing email sends by improved targeting or eliminating unnecessary "replies" can reduce the £ per send or allow you to get more value from your email marketing platforms, and also save huge amounts of time sifting and sorting through spam or pointless email chains, and time is money right?
I hope you find this article interesting, If you're exploring ways to make your digital strategy more sustainable and cost-effective, let’s connect, I’d love to share ideas and hear yours.
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