The situation we are in right now is where many of us almost certainly spend a lot more of our work time on online meetings (such as Zoom and Teams) and a lot more of our leisure time watching streaming TV. In fact, my main pastime, martial arts, has been mostly converted into 6 hours a week of Zoom sessions. Given this, I found this interesting new report on the carbon impact of video streaming. The news is better than you might think.
Compared to other activities that we are being prevented from doing during lockdown (driving, flying, etc), video streaming has a significantly lower carbon impact.
The overview from the UK Carbon Trust's white paper on this summarises:
Key findings include:
- At an individual level, the carbon footprint of viewing one hour of video-on-demand streaming (approximately 55gCO2e in Europe) is very small compared to other everyday activities.
- The viewing device is typically responsible for the largest part of the overall carbon footprint.
- Changes in video quality, such as moving from high-definition to standard-definition, affect the bitrate required to transmit video data, but were found to have only a very small impact on carbon emissions.
- Improvements in technology mean that network equipment required to deliver the internet is continually becoming more energy efficient and, coupled with increased procurement of renewable electricity, the carbon intensity of ICT services over time are expected to drive down.
If you are interested in reading more then please follow this link:
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