Carbon Footprint of Information and Communication Technologies

Climate change, a disruption to average weather conditions is having profound impact on nation economies. Global warming occurs due to CO2 emission into atmosphere. The climate change due to CO2 emission is irreversible for at least 1000 years, and hence the atmospheric temperature will not decrease in the near future. The technology driven information and communication technology adds further to this woe by being responsible for 4% of CO2 emission across the globe. The desktop and laptop computers, smart phones, internet usage, web browsing and the like have tremendous effect on the carbon foot print through their energy consumption. The energy consumption is increasing by 9% a year. This paper attempts to analyze the impact of computation methods, hours and computer configurations, web browsing pattern and email usage on climate change through primary and secondary data in a technical educational institution. The results revealed a tremendous amount of CO2e emission due to the ICT usage practices. The study further attempts to analyze the measures taken by the institution for carbon sequestration.