Email

[Rharris9585]

What is the 'carbon footprint' or enviromental impact of sending an email?

Thanks

[jake-the-peg]

Nil if you're considering an extra e-mail

A computer and network system that is already switched on with spare capacity.

Or you could add up the carbon footprints of all the systems being used to handle the mail and divide by the number of mails handled by each per day.

Trouble is that the systems are in most cases used for other things as well so it's not practical to simply seperate out e-mails

[ajwt2]

as jake says, very hard to work out how much per email. However PC's and servers use a HUGE amount of water and solvent in their manufacturing. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it is something like 200 litres of water and 1 litre of solvent per PC. That is a lot of pollution.