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5 Small Actions We Can Take To Help Preserve The Earth
The subtitle of this post above seems pretty heavy. I think we often don’t like to think of the damage we do to the Earth because the reality of it can be quite sobering and frightening. There is also the issue that indivdually we can feel quite insignificant when we think of the population of the planet.
However, if a lot of us as individuals take small actions the cumulative effect of that can be positive for the Earth and help to reduce the strain we are putting on our planet and the demand for it’s resources.
I’m going to explore 5 things in tech that we can do to reduce our carbon footprint.
1. Use Refurbished Technology
We need good machines to create softare and websites on. We don’t want to use frustratingly slow hardware when we are browsing or playing games. These statements are true but that doesn’t mean we have to buy brand new equipment every few years when our kit starts to struggle to cope to do what we need it to.
I am writing this post on a refurbished PC I bought on eBay. It’s the fastest machine I’ve ever owned. Refurbished doesn’t have to mean slow.
Performance will be relative to your requirements when it comes to computing but let’s consider the environmental benefits for a moment.
Buying a refurbished computer means that less natural resources such as Cobalt need to be mined in order to create a new machine. Cobalt at the moment is mined and exported from places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Countries such as this are poorly equipped to deal with the environmental impact caused by the mining.
Using refurbished technology means a lower carbon footprint due to less production and exporting of components required to create new machines.
The Earth will thank you for using refurbished tech where possible. Your pocket will too.
2. Use Dark Mode
It’s a slightly devisive one this. I know that the impact is minimal. However if we all used Dark Modes in our applications it would mean less screen brightness. This then means less power is consumed by your device and subsequently you need to recharge less.
Carbon footprint reduced. Slightly.
3. Use Ethical Companies
Fortunately I think the tech industry is making efforts to help the Earth in terms of reducing it’s carbon footprint. Google has been carbon neutral since 2007 by offsetting it’s energy consumption. By 2030 the search giants have committed to only using carbon-free energy throughout the business.
Hosting provider Krystal became one of the first businesses of it’s kind to be powered purely by renewables. Since 2017 Krystal have embraced renewable energy from sources such as solar, wind and tidal to power their business.
Even more impressive is a pledge that Krystal have made to plant or protect 1 billion trees by 2030.
It’s this ethical stance plus the good service they provide that attracted me to use them to host this very site and others.
They are highly recommended by me.
4. Take a Break
Ok, maybe this is a tenuous one to crowbar into a tech related blog. To be honest, we could all do with working less and relaxing more. A 4 day working week may at some point be part of the solution to that. UK trials are ongoing and results in terms of productivity levels seem to be encouraging.
How does this help the Earth though?
Well, put simply. The extra day’s break from work would enable people to have a choice to not turn on their computer. That reduction in energy consumption would help reduce our carbon footprint. Of course, plenty of us still commute into work to and we could see a significant reduction in fossil fuel usage with a shortened working week too.
5. Embrace Change
This is more of a philosophical point. However there is a reason that people get paid a lot of money to manage change in companies.
We as people just don’t like change.
Earth Day Gives Us Opportunities
When a day like Earth Day does come around it gives us the ideal opportunity to think about how we can make changes around us and in our lifestyle. Changes that can help reduce our carbon footprint and sustain the Earth for future generations.
We must act now. This means we need to change.
How Will You Make a Difference?
Got any top sustainability tips? Leave a comment on the post.
Thanks for reading,
Chris
