Bye, bye Datenchaos

Emails, spam emails and newsletters - new digital mail lands in our inboxes every day. It often remains there for years or even decades. The same applies to old, unnecessary documents and other data. Then there is the footprint of our digital devices, such as PCs, laptops, monitors and smartphones. These products also generate CO2, both in their production, which is particularly resource-intensive, and in their pure use. 78 percent of the total environmental impact that a smartphone, for example, has over its lifetime is caused by its manufacture. The remaining environmental impact is made up of around 15 percent for data usage and 5 percent for electricity. This shows that conscious use of these products has a major impact on the environment. If you clean out mailboxes, hard disks and the cloud properly, you need less storage space and also reduce costs. Aspects such as data protection and data security also speak in favor of a dedicated digital decluttering process. The Corporate Digital Responsibility Initiative's "Digital Data Cleaning" campaign provides support on how this can be achieved.

So it's worth avoiding unnecessary email traffic and getting rid of old emails! It's like a tidy desk: you can keep an overview and find what you're looking for more easily.

• Get an overview: Check how much storage space your mailbox requires and which folders are particularly large.
  
• Identify "heavyweights": Display the emails by size. Delete emails with large attachments that you no longer need. Also remember to look under the sent emails.
  
• Check old emails: Use the same search mechanism to search for emails that are older than two years, for example. Decide which ones you actually still need and delete the others.
  
• Remove unnecessary messages: Do you still need all your newsletters and social media messages? Are there a lot of calendar invitations, reminders and out-of-office messages in your inbox? Use the keyword search and search for these senders, subjects and messages. If you no longer need the emails, delete them.
• Check drafts: There are often forgotten, incomplete messages in the drafts folder. If you no longer intend to send them, delete them too.
• Empty the recycle bin: Messages in the recycle bin are not permanently deleted and continue to take up storage space. Therefore, go to your recycle bin and delete the emails permanently.
  

Globally, digital technologies are responsible for around two percent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. In our private and professional lives, we use a wide range of technologies for communication, entertainment and productivity. By using these technologies carefully, each and every one of us has the opportunity to make a contribution to reducing these emissions.