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Activity: The carbon footprint of an e-mail

Duration : 1h

Format : Group work

Group constitution : 3 to 4 persons

Assignment

You are a consultant specializing in the environmental impact assessment of digital technology. The company info2000 has asked you to assess the carbon footprint of their email services over a one-year period in order to understand how to improve the environmental footprint of their digital activities.

Ressources

End user equipments

The company has 100 employees working 35 hours per week with five weeks of paid vacation, based in France, each with a laptop on which they perform all their tasks. Employees spend an average of one hour per day sending or receiving emails, which management considers to be their most important activity. Their supplier, Dell, provided this PCF (Product Carbon Footprint) sheet.

Product carbon footprint of a Dell Latitude 9520
Product carbon footprint of a Dell Latitude 9520, Link

Network

The email service uses 100 GB of the 1,000 GB used annually by the company via the fiber network. Your provider, FreePro, provides you with the following regulatory method:

Mon Empreinte carbone, Free
Mon Empreinte carbone, Free, https://mobile.free.fr/account/v2/empreinte-carbone

__

With the following data:

  • A = 0.001 kgCO2eq./GB
  • b = 20 kgCO2eq./subscriber

Datacenter

The company’s service provider is Caramail, which has a data center in France. 10% of its revenue comes from info2000, but info2000 uses 20% of the infrastructure’s capacity. The data center consumes 10 MWh annually. However, it has signed a contract (Power Purchase Agreement - PPA) with a solar power plant in India from which it purchases 100% of its electricity, which is why it reports an environmental footprint of 0 to its customers.

For simplicity, you only need to consider the impact of the data centre’s use phase (i.e. don’t consider the impact of acquiring raw materials, manufacturing, distribution or end of life).

Other elements

  • The average carbon footprint in France per MWh is 50 kg CO₂eq.
  • You do not have to use all of the elements presented in the instructions.
  • Calculate the impact separately for laptops, the network, and the data center.
  • There are no right or wrong answers, as long as you justify your choices.