The environmental cost of your cloud choices

Here’s a piece from Red Shark looking at how Anyone aiming at sustainability or interested in running a carbon neutral production needs to pay attention to small details - and that includes some of their computing choices.

Here’s an excerpt:

Researchers at Lancaster University found that streaming a HD film has the equivalent energy use of boiling over 10 kettles of water. On a larger scale, the UK-based industry sustainability organisation albert estimates that the average hour of television produces 9.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. 

The organisation’s 2019-2020 report in its entirety is fascinating reading and worth a look for its detailed breakdown of impacts alone. Drama was the worst offender last year, if you want to couch it in those terms, at around 37.5 tonnes per hour, news and sport the least at 1 tonne and under. At over 50 tonnes, large international factual productions (think wildlife ) can be the worse — it’s just that none were being shot in the period of the report. The biggest single contributing factor to carbon emissions? People transport. It will be interesting to see how Covid will have changed that in the next report.

Read the full thing here: The environmental cost of your cloud choices