TU Wien Bibliothek actively promotes digital sustainability and participated in this year’s Digital Cleanup Day. Deleting around 13 GB of old emails and data, we reduced our CO2 footprint by 3.1 kg. With this action, we demonstrate our engagement for the environment, and highlight the relevance of acting with environmental awareness in the digital age.

The effects of our digital behaviour on the environment may surprise some people. For example, an email without attachments produces significantly fewer CO2 equivalents than an email with an attachment. For this reason, sending emails with links instead of attachments is preferable when trying to minimize your ecological footprint.

Our numbers show that over the last year, our library team deleted around 476,000 emails. Deleting unnecessary files and emails prolongs the lifespan of our devices and improves their performance. Cleaning up our digital lives also promotes more efficiency in our digital habits and raises awareness of the importance of a sustainable use of data.