Study shows UK’s daily carbon footprint for emails is more than 2,750 tonnes
Melanie May | 19 July 2024 | News
A study by an email validation and deliverability firm shows that the UK is one of the top email carbon emitters globally, with a daily carbon footprint of 2,751 tonnes from an estimated 8.32 billion emails sent every day.
This makes the UK one of the top email carbon emitters globally, Zero Bounce says. Its study shows that 85% of the UK’s population, or 57.7 million people, use email. The country sends 8.32 billion emails daily, with an average of 144.03 emails per user. This, it says, results in a daily carbon footprint of 2,751.32 tonnes and a per-user footprint of 43.21 grams, with the UK’s email activity representing 1.29% of the global email traffic.
Daily global carbon emissions from emails
Overall, it says, sending and receiving emails emits about 1344.3 tonnes of carbon globally on a daily basis.
Advertisement
The study used the most recent reports of population numbers from the World Population Review. The information about the percentage of email users came from the reports by Statista, while the number of emails sent out per country were taken from the Talos Intelligence website. Zero Bounce also notes that it is globally recognised that on average one email transaction emits 0.3 grams of CO2. The carbon footprint was calculated according to the number of emails sent out per user.
Top 5 countries for email carbon emissions
The United States tops the ranking: the study says that 89.45% of the US population uses emails, emitting on average 3,207 tonnes of CO2 daily. Each user, on average, sends or receives 31.72 emails per day, contributing 9.52 grams to the daily carbon footprint per capita. The country’s email activity accounts for 6.82% of the overall world email traffic, the second largest in the list.
Germany came second, followed by Ireland and the Netherlands, with the UK in fifth place.
A spokesperson from Zero Bounce said:
“There is a substantial carbon emission from email usage and that emphasises the need for greater awareness and strategies to reduce the digital carbon footprint. Understanding the environmental impact of our digital communication practices is crucial for developing sustainable solutions and mitigating climate change.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.