The Internet has traditionally been viewed as a low-carbon impact alternative to traditional activities (which use countless tons of paper and non-renewable energy). The Internet's supporting infrastructure of web servers, data centers and production materials (i.e. computers), however, is a hugely wasteful and carbon-intensive area of the economy.  We're looking at roughly 700 Billion kWh in 2010.   And that number is growing, really, really fast.

The Net Impact: Savings vs. Consumption

As we mention in our article on our own Wind-Power Web Hosting, saving energy and reducing dirty-energy consumption aren't the same thing.

Most of the net is powered by large-scale energy and water intensive collections of computers that produce the web.  These web-servers reside in a data center.  An energy-efficient data center saves power compared to a traditional data center. For example, Facebook is building an energy-efficient data center in Oregon.

Image: Architectural Rendering of Facebook's new Datacentre - from Data Center Knowledge.

However, that (new) energy-efficient data center still relies on energy produced principally from coal and other non-renewable sources.  So in terms of the environment: not a good thing.  As most people are aware, coal and other non-renewable energy sources come with a steep price: ecosystem destruction, increased cancer rates, global warming and more.

To put things in perspective even the relatively environmentally progressive Google has somewhere between 500,000 and a million servers running (they don't share publicly share this info).  That equals a lot of Co2.

Most computers create 40-80 grams of greenhouse gas emissions per hour through their electricity use (depending on electricity source and computer type), so the aggregated greenhouse gas emissions just from computers is quite sizable, never mind the servers and fiber optic lines. Sources say that the Internet accounts for 3 percent of US electricity consumption and 2 percent of global CO2 emissions.

- From Treehugger.com

The Net is Still Very New

Of course, Facebook and Google are hardly to blame for the energy-from-burning based industrial economy.  The internet is still less than 10,000 days old - and so trying to understand the environmental impact of the net is a challenge.  Very few scientific studies have done on the subject of the net's eco-impact and what little has been done tends more toward pop-science than hard study.

How people view the environmental impact of the Internet will probably come down to the question saving vs. reducing.  Much like the coal industry's marketing campaign for an imaginary 'clean coal', many 'green' web hosts and large internet companies proclaim themselves as 'eco-friendly' while buying environmentally dubious carbon offsets and using the cheapest-available materials and labour whenever possible.

While companies like Google often hold progressive practices towards limited Renewable Energy use and building ultra-efficient datacentres, they have no moral opinion on assisting BP's Public Relations campaign.  Google and most other large web companies are essentially ambivalent about whom they work with - which is an environmentally harmful policy in itself.  It is worth considering that Google made money on the oil spill as BP spent big money on 'learn how we're helping the Gulf' search advertisements.

Cloud Computing: Fata Morgana

Current and probable future trends on the net such as Cloud Computing [Wikipedia] may also significantly increase the carbon impact of the net.

In 2010 Greenpeace recently launched their Make IT Green campaign with a focus on greening cloud computing.  We can assume that most of the cloud's energy will continue to be derived from traditional sources (such as coal and nuclear energy) which means that in the long-run the expansive growth of the cloud and Internet may make current environmental problems worse.

Efficiency is a hot topic in IT, but improving energy efficiency is only part of the solution... the industry also needs to take responsibility for where it gets its energy from in the first place. Simply put: Will the cloud run on coal or renewable energy?

We are calling on IT industry giants to put their might behind government policies that give priority grid access for renewable sources like wind and solar energy..

- GreenPeace's 'Make it Green' PDF, via Data Center Knowledge

With cloud-computing's expansive growth into 2010, the concerns put forward by GreenPeace and other eco-interested parties seem reasonable.  As the net expands we have an opportunity to also grow Renewable Energy sources in tandem.  From a financial standpoint, it's an easy business decision to go the route of making data centers and web sites energy-efficient - it saves money.  In addition to being the right thing to do, investing more in Renewable Energy saves money in the long-term. There's no lack of profits to invest in renewable energy at the large companies targeted by the Make IT Green campaign.

Measuring the Impact: Starting at Day One

By any name - Mainframe, Desktop, iPhone, Android, Mobile, iPads, Laptops, Servers - computer production also has a significant impact on the environment.

In measuring the environmental impact of the net, we feel it is absolutely necessary to do a full life-cycle measurement from day one of computer production to your own Facebook Status Update.  Raw material extraction, material production, part production and assembly all have real environmental and human costs at every part of the process.

Image: Simplified Computer Chip Production, from EnviroLiteracy

It's worth considering what happens to these Internet-devices when they are obsolete.  In 2008 National Geographic published an extensive article on e-waste which publicized the numerious environmental and human health concerns associated with the computing industry.  eWaste and other life-cycle measurements are still rarely addressed in measuring the environmental impact of the web.

Editor's Note: At CartaNova we're happy to be working with a rare web hosting firm that does consider impact from start to finish - Canvas Dreams, outside of Portland, Oregon.  We work with Canvas Dreams to provide direct wind-power web hosting for our clients.

The Past and Future Information Highway

Recent studies have shown that most of what we experience as 'the internet' today is mediated by just a few companies like Google and Facebook.

In the early days of the net there was a (somewhat naive?) culture of free software, free thought and environmental utopianism.  After Yahoo's activities in China, Facebook's endless attacks on consumer privacy, and images like these in Ghana - the consensus on the Internet and the environment isn't so optimistic anymore.  At CartaNova we tend to be pretty combative about whether or not something passes the 'real green' test - the stakes are too important to treat the issue casually.  However, we do respect the need for a diversity of tactics and we do believe that (most) green initiatives are better than doing nothing at all.

So, we'll end with this thought: whether you are a company CEO or just your average web user, we all have a responsibility to conduct our affairs on and off the net with human and ecological welfare in mind.  The next time you buy a product and do business on and off the net we hope you will take a moment to consider the local and global impact.

If we don't start challenging unproductive over-positive thinking with real assessments of our own affairs, we run the risk of compounding existing damage.  It's happening already, and we can do better.