Tomorrow is Digital Cleanup Day!

Tomorrow (Saturday 15 March) is Digital Cleanup Day, which is a day dedicated to cleaning up our digital lives, just like we clean up our physical environment on World Cleanup Day in September.

Now into its fifth year, and organised by Let's Do It World, a global civic organisation, Digital Cleanup Day is aimed at raising awareness about digital pollution, encouraging individuals and companies to declutter and restructure their online presence.

Since 2020, 175 different countries and territories have taken part in Digital Cleanup Day. Almost 1.2 million people have deleted over 14.5 million GB of data, preventing the yearly production of around 3,625 tons of CO2.

The impact of digital clutter and waste

Getting rid of digital clutter:

• helps to reduce CO2 emission;
• prolongs your devices' lifespan;
• speeds up and simplifies information sharing and finding;
• reduces data storage security risks;
• increases disk and server capacity, helping reduce costs.

Important digital waste facts include:

• it takes more energy to mine for Bitcoin than the whole of New Zealand consumes in a year;
• in just one year (2007), one zettabyte of data was created worldwide, and by 2010 that had doubled;
• in 2035, we will create more than 2,000 zettabytes - to print out one zettabyte of data you would need the paper from 20 trillion trees (there are only about 3.5 trillion trees left on the planet);
• in 2022, about 70 million servers were used to store data - each one caused the production of 1-2 tons of CO2, and in that year, about 20 million of them became e-waste;
• 99% of data was created within the last 10 years;
• limitless consumption of data today needs three times more energy than all the solar panels the world can produce;
• the Internet produces more than 900 million tons of CO2 each year;
• 90% of all data is never accessed three months after it is stored;
• 91% of web pages get no traffic from Google;
• 320 billion emails are sent every day, and 62 trillion spam emails every year, which equals 20 million tons of CO2;
• one email emits, on average, 4g of CO2, which equals the carbon footprint of a light bulb turned on for six minutes.

Digital cleanups for businesses

Companies and organisations can make changes in everyday work flow that help reduce the the ecological footprint of digital systems significantly.

This requires a little time and willingness to make strategic decisions and implement simple changes. When you think of your workflow, you must evaluate what does and does not work, then assess how you can make the system work better for everyone.

Businesses should consider their digital clutter and waste, because:

• by tackling your digital footprint issue head-on, you reduce your organisation's environmental load, creating instead a much more sustainable workflow;
• too many systems, or half-used solutions, decrease efficiency: having better-organised and clear virtual offices helps to increase worker satisfaction, thus increasing efficiency;
• digital waste is expensive for you and the environment: each minute sees 240 million emails sent, of which 20% are never even opened, and the space occupied by backups and unused files on servers carries a price tag;
• the fewer forgotten backups and unused digital systems you possess, the fewer resources are spent on surveillance and monitoring of logs, and consequently, there are fewer security risks and server strains;
• organising and taking part in Digital Cleanup Day increases team morale and unity: it is a team building event which carries a positive social and environmental impact;
• by inviting other organisations to join you in digital cleanups, you help create awareness around the issue, kickstarting the discussion in society on how we can solve this invisible problem of digital pollution.

Organisations can reduce their digital footprint by:

• knowing what is and what is not waste:
  • digital waste could be anything from pointless copies, forgotten backups, or customer records kept for years,
  • your digital footprint also increases by sending emails with or without files back and forth, using virtual workspaces irregularly, backing up large files on servers in real time, and holding long meetings with video streaming,
  • a great way to start figuring this out is to make an overview of what is business-critical, and what kind of records are required to be kept by law, followed by evaluating the efficiency of your digital procedures;
• map your digital waste:
  • find out where your forgotten digital trash is,
  • check through all your backups, email inboxes and sent items, expired records and documents, all data kept on servers, and where large files are being stored;
• organise a digital cleanup:
  • educate your staff about digital waste and organise a company-wide digital clean-up,
  • encourage staff to clean up both their personal and company devices,
  • organise a competition or challenge co-workers to participate,
  • get rid of all junk and keep what is business-critical in cloud servers,
  • include your IT department in coming up with solutions that would cut down on wasteful digital practices;
• implement practices that help keep digital waste in check:
  • automate deletion of expired files,
  • organise your virtual workspace in a way you would organise an office,
  • have fewer, and more effective, video meetings,
  • make sure you are using your virtual office efficiently,
  • educate your employees on digital practices,
  • give up systems that do not serve you well.

How individuals can get involved

Individuals can get involved in Digital Cleanup Day by:

• clean up your smartphone:
  • remove all apps that you have not used for a while, or used only a few times, as they consume energy even when they are not in use and can consume hundreds of megabytes during monthly updates,
  • remember to delete any user accounts (including emails) and associated data that you created when you were younger and have not accessed for a decade or more, as this will speed up your phone and increase your battery life, it is always worth having as few apps as necessary,
  • review your photos and videos by deleting the unnecessary ones, plus any duplicates, which would allow you to free up tens of gigabytes of valuable storage space;
• clean up your computer hard drive:
  • sort out your personal computer and delete files that are duplicates or have become useless,
  • go through all your photos, deleting duplicates and blurry ones,
  • check the video files and delete watched or unnecessary ones,
  • archive the important files;
• clean up your mailbox:
  • filter emails by the oldest one and archive them,
  • unsubscribe from newsletters you do not even read,
  • select long conversations, pick the newest ones and delete everything else,
  • search for common names, addresses, and words to round up similar emails so you can deal with them en masse;
• make new arrangements:
  • instead of sending emails, use more co-working places or virtual meeting and chat platforms,
  • stop sending "ok" and "thank you" emails, and avoid the "reply all" button,
  • keep the important files in one cloud space, so there is no need to keep the same file in every computer,
  • think before you back up,
  • create less "fast content" and be more intentional about your videos and photos,
  • turn off video during virtual meetings, unless necessary,
  • reduce the quality of streaming services,
  • decrease gaming time,
  • limit time on social media,
  • unsubscribe from newsletters and email lists.

You can register your digital cleanup here!

For more information on this subject, see:

• Cleaning your smartphone and tablet;
• Clean your computer and your drive;
• Cleaning your emails.