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Carbon impact of emails : complete guide

Complete guide on the carbon impact of your mailbox: calculation methodologies, differences between ADEME approaches and real email infrastructure.

Email & mail impactDetailed calculationsVerified sources10 min read
Technical analysis

The hidden journey of an email

Understanding why storage and redundancy multiply impact by 400

1. International Sending

Travel across multiple continents (routers, submarine cables).

Low (~4g)

Transit via US/Asia servers even for local sending.

2. Reception & Storage

Arrival and writing to recipient server disk.

Medium (Initial)

Continuous 24/7 consumption (PUE ~1.8).

3. Duration (Accumulation)

Passive storage for years (average 4 years).

High (Cumulative)

Each year adds ~35g CO₂ per copy.

4. Global Redundancy

Automatic replication across 3 to 5 different datacenters.

Very High (x20)

For security, the file is copied on 5 to 20 servers.

Total:Sending + (Storage × Duration × Redundancy)= 145g CO₂

Methodology

Methodological comparison: why these differences?

Analysis of differences between ADEME approaches (user usage) and complete infrastructure calculations with verified sources.

The surprising finding

Official figures attribute 92% of an email's impact to your PC, and only 0.5% to the servers that store it...

ADEME methodology

~0.11g CO₂
Simple email
Focus: User usage
Composition, sending, reading
92% attributed to PCs
Manufacturing amortization
0.5% infrastructure
Basic storage

Real architecture

145g CO₂
30MB email stored 4 years
24/7 infrastructure
Servers + cooling
5-20× redundancy
Multiple backups
Complete cycle
Permanent storage

Why this difference?

ADEME looks at

What your device does when you send an email

FileVert looks at

What datacenters do to store your email

Both approaches are legitimate, but they measure different things!

Sources and studies

NégaOctet Expert
Basile Fighiera, detailed analysis Sami.eco (2022)
HelloCarbo
"An email can be duplicated up to 20 times" (2023)
Official study
ADEME-Arcep, Ministries (2020-2022)

At FileVert, we use a methodology based on the real architecture of modern email systems to give you a transparent view of your carbon savings.

Examples

Concrete examples: carbon impact of your daily emails

Comparisons of carbon impact of your emails: from simple text messages to heavy attachments stored in your mailbox.

Simple email

"Hi, meeting at 2pm?"

Poids : 200 bytes
~0.5g CO₂
Equivalent: 2 meters by car

Email with photo

"Look at my vacation photo!"

Poids : 5 MB
~65g CO₂
Equivalent: 300 meters by car

Large file email

"Here's the 30MB presentation"

Poids : 30 MB
~145g CO₂
Equivalent: 700 meters by car

FileVert alternative

"Here's the link to the 30MB file"

Poids : 200 bytes + link
~0.36g CO₂
Equivalent: 1.5 meters by car

Solutions

Solutions to reduce your messaging carbon impact

Practical actions to optimize your emails, clean your mailbox and reduce your email account's carbon footprint on a daily basis.

Avoid heavy attachments

Before
30 MB email stored 4 years: 145g CO₂
After
Email + FileVert link: 0.36g CO₂
Reduction: 99.8%

Clean your mailbox

Before
Keep 1000 emails with attachments: ~50kg CO₂/year
After
Regular deletion: divided by 10
Reduction: 90%

Compress files

Before
10MB photo: 123g CO₂
After
Compressed 1MB photo: 13g CO₂
Reduction: 89%

Use temporary links

Before
Permanent storage: infinite accumulation
After
2-15 day storage: minimal impact
Reduction: 95%
Comparison table

Detailed carbon impact: emails, mails and mailbox storage

Comparative table of carbon impact: from simple mail to emails with attachments stored in your messaging system.

Email typeSending impactStorage impact/yearTotal impact 4 years
Simple (200 bytes)0.1g CO₂0.1g CO₂~0.5g CO₂
With 1MB attachment1g CO₂3g CO₂~13g CO₂
With 10MB attachment3g CO₂30g CO₂~123g CO₂
With 30MB attachment5g CO₂35g CO₂/year145g CO₂

Warning: ADEME figures only count 0.5% for storage, which completely ignores redundancy and permanent infrastructure.

Large scale

Large-scale impact

When multiplied by millions of users, the impact becomes considerable: 1.4 billion emails per day in France.

1.4 billion
Emails sent per day in France
25%
With attachments (350 million)
15 tons
Daily CO₂ just for emails

Speaking equivalents

15 tons CO₂/day
= 30 Paris-London flights
Over 1 year
= 1,100 cars running all year

Summary

In summary: the simple equation

Email impact = Composition + Transmission + Reading + (Storage × Duration × Redundancy)
Composition + Transmission + Reading
Fixed and minimal
Storage
Avoidable
Duration
User choice
Redundancy
Technical architecture

With FileVert

Normal sending + minimal storage + short duration + optimized redundancy = impact divided by 400

Sending costs little
(~1-5g CO₂)
Storage costs dear
(~30-140g CO₂ depending on duration)
Smart links change everything
(99.8% reduction)

Ready to reduce your carbon impact ?

Start now using smart links instead of heavy emails

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Answers to common questions about email carbon impact and methodological differences.

ADEME focuses on user usage (composition, sending, reading) and attributes 92% of impact to PCs. FileVert analyzes real infrastructure: 24/7 storage, 5-20× redundancy, datacenter cooling. Both approaches are legitimate but measure different things.
Yes, even a simple email consumes energy for composition, transmission and storage. The main impact comes from permanent storage in datacenters with redundancy. An email stored for 4 years with redundancy can represent 0.5g CO₂ total.
FileVert uses temporary links (2-15 days) instead of permanent storage. This avoids massive redundancy and 24/7 infrastructure. An email + FileVert link = 0.36g CO₂ vs 145g CO₂ for an email with attachment stored for 4 years.
Yes, according to NégaOctet and HelloCarbo experts, an email can be duplicated up to 20 times for backup, synchronization and redundancy. This is the reality of modern email infrastructure with its multiple backup servers.
1) Avoid heavy attachments (use FileVert links), 2) Regularly clean your mailbox, 3) Compress files before sending, 4) Use temporary links rather than permanent storage. These actions can reduce impact by 90-99%.
Yes, with 1.4 billion emails per day in France, including 25% with attachments, daily impact represents 15 tons of CO₂, equivalent to 30 Paris-London flights per day. Over a year, this represents 1,100 cars running permanently.