How to Reduce Your Digital Carbon Footprint: A Guide for HE Professionals

An illustration of a group of professionals measuring a carbon footprint.

Sustainable ≠ negotiable

Sustainable is no longer negotiable. This is especially true in the higher education sector. Our prospective students feel passionately about the environment. They will consider a university’s commitment to the environment in their decision about where to apply.

Our current students are no different. They lobby and campaign on environmental issues through their Students’ Union and beyond. Their NSS scores may reflect their pride or disappointment in the extent to which their university shares their green ethos.

And it’s not just students: our entire community is increasingly conscious about sustainability. This includes our staff, alumni, donors, leadership, business partners, and academic colleagues. It’s reflected in university values, academic research, allegiance to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the rise in vegan options in university outlets, and the growing number of electric vehicles on campus.

Thankfully, as HE professionals, we can help. We can reduce our institutional carbon footprint by reviewing our marketing and communications activity.

Reducing our print carbon footprint

It’s no secret: The University of Nottingham is proud of its micro prospectus.

And rightly so. By replacing its traditional, weighty printed prospectus with a tiny micro-prospectus, the university is saving more than 72 tonnes of paper and over 18,240kg of CO2 each year. This is the equivalent of an average petrol car driving 287,000 miles.

The reduction in print materials continues elsewhere in the sector; a process which was largely accelerated during the COVID pandemic. Digital screens are replacing printed posters across campus. Fundraising campaigns are reducing direct mails and increasing email outreach. Open day guides are now provided in PDF and HTML formats, rather than a paper brochure.

But reducing print will only do so much. Sadly, digital content also has a carbon footprint. This digital carbon footprint is growing exponentially across the sector (and the planet) as more and more people go online, grow online, stay online.

As HE professionals, we need to increase our awareness around digital sustainability. Let’s start with email signatures…

Do you really need to print this email?

It’s a common feature in email signatures: A question with good intentions: “Do you really need to print this email?”

This extra line is usually in a green font, often accompanied by an image of a tree. Ironically, this does more harm to the environment than good. Why? Because this addition increases the carbon load of the email. Everything added to an email – text, colour, imagery – will add to the weight of the email. A heavier email means more energy is required to send and store the email.

An extra line in an email signature might only add 1KB to a single email… but consider how many emails you send each day. Now, consider how many emails are sent in your university, in the HE sector, in the world, each day.

Even worse are the elaborate banners that sometimes appear under email signatures. These can have bright colours and photos and links – and even animated GIFs – to promote open days or research campaigns. And they have a much greater weight than 1KB.

Of course, it’s not just emails.

Digital has a carbon footprint

Digital is adding to the energy consumption crisis. We use energy every time we open a browser, create a webpage, write a blog post, share a photo, upload a video, record a virtual meeting, and post on social media. Anything which requires the internet, or makes the internet larger, is adding to carbon emissions.

The internet is powered by hundreds of thousands of data servers around the world. These are batteries the size of factories. And for added insult, they require an obscene amount of air conditioning to prevent these always-on servers from overheating.

Our electronic devices, the internet, and the systems supporting them are responsible for 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. By comparison, the aviation industry is 3.5%. Some universities have strict travel policies around flying in favour of sustainability, but how many have strict policies around use of digital activity?

Sadly, even writing, posting, and reading this article has created carbon. But you can take action.

Reducing your digital carbon footprint

As HE professionals, you can make a difference. Within our universities, you are likely to lead or support digital projects: websites, digital assets, email campaigns, virtual events, video production, social media, and podcasts. This means you have an opportunity to reduce your digital carbon footprint.

Even if you’re not directly involved in these projects, you will still use digital tools: laptops, phones, tablets, inboxes, shared drives. Again, these all have an energy cost. Thankfully, you can make some simple changes to make your digital content (and conduct) more sustainable.

The following offers advice on how you can go green when you go online.

If you consume digital content…

Use a green search engine – Ecosia uses renewable solar energy to power searches made on their site. They also plant a tree for every search. At the time of writing, they have planted almost 200 million trees in 35 countries.
Unsubscribe from mailing lists – Remove yourself from unwanted mailing lists. Each email you receive uses energy. If your emails aren’t bringing you value, then it’s a poor use of energy. Plus, who doesn’t want fewer emails?
Close tabs and apps – Remember to close tabs on your browser and apps on your phone when you’ve finished using them. These will continue to use energy and draw upon your precious eduroam Wi-Fi and mobile data. And a decluttered screen is good for focus.

If you use digital equipment…

Adjust your settings – Adjust your power settings to lower screen brightness and trigger sleep mode soon after inactivity. You can also embrace dark mode. This uses less energy and emits less insomnia-inducing “blue light” as an added bonus.
Keep and donate – Keep your equipment for as long as possible. Your university IT department can offer advice on device longevity. When you are due an upgrade, look for opportunities to re-gift your equipment to other colleagues and departments.
Delete data – Have a regular digital spring clean. Delete unwanted data in your drives, folders, inboxes, and apps. Empty your Recycle Bin and Deleted Items too. Consider whether you need to keep old recordings of Teams meetings and open day talks.

If you create digital content…

Create Once, Repurpose Elsewhere - Follow the CORE principle. This encourages you to reuse, recut, or repurpose content you have created previously, rather than starting from scratch. A bit like pre-loved fashion, this is a way to give your content a second life.
Choose low-energy colours – Dark colours (black, red, green) require less energy to display than lighter colours (white, blue, yellow). Dark mode is best of all, as mentioned above. This presents white text on a black background, which is also valuable for readability too.
Choose sustainable fonts – Yes, even your choice of font can impact on the environment. Use lightweight system fonts, like Times New Roman and Calibri, if your university style guide will permit you. They use less energy to display and they’re faster to print.

If you create webpages…

Reduce images – Consider whether images are necessary or decorative. If you do use images, you can compress your images by more than 85% using TinyPNG. This will turn your MBs into KBs. The difference isn’t even noticeable on a laptop screen or phone.
Reduce videos – Much like images, consider whether videos are necessary. Universities produce lots of static, talking-head videos. This information could be conveyed in audio or text instead. Only use videos when needing to capture dynamic, immersive content.
Delete content – Webpages need pruning regularly. Sometimes, they need deleting entirely. Other times, they need a trim: strip out unnecessary code, fix broken links, delete outdated content, consolidate repeated information.

If you manage the website…

Calculate your carbon – Monitor how much carbon your website produces by visiting the webpage carbon calculator by Wholegrain Digital. They also offer advice on designing sustainable webpages to help you improve your rating.
Set a page weight budget – Give your teams a page weight budget. A page weight is the size of files transferred over the internet when a webpage is loaded, measured in MB and KB. A set budget will give teams motivation and accountability to build a greener web.
Adopt UX best practice – Adopting user experience (UX) best practice will benefit your users and the planet. A robust information architecture with good content design will help your users complete their online tasks more quickly, which will require less energy.

If you are a leader with influence over policy…

Change energy supplier – Switch your university to a renewable energy supplier, such as Ecotricity. Their electricity is certified green (and vegan!) and their gas is sustainable too. If your universities have solar panels, you can also export electricity for extra cash.
Buy pre-owned equipment – Work with your university procurement department to establish buying pre-owned laptops and phones from Back Market. They’re much cheaper, look and work like new, and renewed tech has less environmental impact.
Choose a green web host – Move your website to a green web host, such as GreenGeeks. For every amp taken from the grid, they put three times as many amps back in the form of renewable energy. They also plant a tree whenever they sign a new hosting account.

Going forward, going green

There are almost 300 higher education institutions in the UK alone. They employ almost 250,000 staff members, of which over half are HE professionals. We are a huge force for creating positive change on many fronts, including the environment.

Saving the planet can feel like a daunting prospect, but I hope this article has shown that you can take action, personally and professionally. You are looking at a digital device right now. You are on the internet. You can begin.

Together, our sector can pioneer digital sustainability. Let’s go green or go home.

About the author

Simon Fairbanks has over 15 years of experience in the Higher Education sector. This includes student recruitment, marketing, and events roles at Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, and Coventry.

Simon is the Head of Community Engagement at Pickle Jar Communications, a content strategy consultancy for the education sector. He helps universities, colleges, and schools share their stories through digital communications.

Simon has spoken at a variety of international conferences, including CASE, ContentEd, and HighEdWeb. He was Chair of the Newcomers Track at CASE Europe Annual Conference from 2020 to 2023.