{"id":512742,"date":"2022-05-10T05:25:08","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T12:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=wherenext&p=512742"},"modified":"2025-12-12T09:11:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T17:11:46","slug":"nexttech-on-digital-carbon-footprints","status":"publish","type":"wherenext","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/nexttech-on-digital-carbon-footprints","title":{"rendered":"NextTech: Tracing the Carbon Footprints of Our Internet Travels"},"author":501,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[479352,281,483792,469281],"department":[488822],"wherenext-category":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-512742","wherenext","type-wherenext","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-digital-economy","tag-location-intelligence","tag-nexttech","tag-renewable-energy","department-sustainability-risk"],"acf":{"short_description":"Powered by location technology, an interactive app brings to life how our internet use affects the planet's health.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Alarmed by the mounting consequences of the climate crisis, people have begun to take change into their own hands, reducing household carbon footprints by buying sustainably sourced clothes<\/a> or switching to electric vehicles<\/a>."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Left","content":"Article snapshot:<\/strong> An innovative use of location technology reveals the environmental cost of our digital lives. DigitalFootprint.earth\u2014the winning presentation in a recent Hack for a Sustainable Future\u2014estimates the digital carbon footprint produced each time you access a given website.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Less attention goes to the digital carbon footprints generated when we perform an internet search or visit a website. The data centers underlying the internet require huge amounts of electricity, which in most cases is still produced by fossil fuels. As remote work and resource-intensive cryptocurrency mining<\/a> add to the load, digital activity could account for 14 percent of the world's CO2 emissions by 2040<\/a>, according to Boston Consulting Group\r\n\r\nWith help from geographic information system<\/a> (GIS) technology, the award-winning web application DigitalFootprint.earth<\/a> helps users visualize and quantify how even a seemingly innocuous visit to a news site can compound the challenge of climate change.\r\n