Turning off cameras during web call helps reduce carbon footprint: study

Team Udayavani, Jan 19, 2021, 12:32 PM IST

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A new study suggests that turning off the cameras during a virtual meeting can help reduce carbon footprint.

The study was published in the journal ‘Resources, Conservation and Recycling’. It revealed that switching off your camera during a virtual meeting can reduce a person’s carbon footprints by 96 percent.

The researchers stated that more the video used in an application, larger the footprints.

The internet’s carbon footprint has been increasing before Covid-19 lockdowns, accounting for about 3.7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

In the studies of how internet use impacts the environment, the water and land footprints of internet infrastructure have been overlooked.

The researchers studied the footprints and investigated on how they might be affected by increased internet traffic. They found that footprints not only vary from one web platform to another, but also for countries.

The study team gathered data for Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, UK and US.