English Language summary of the Green IT Association’s 2025 Global Survey on the Environmental Impact of the Digital World
Today, the Green IT Association published the results of its 2025 Global Survey on the Environmental Footprint of the Digital World. I was fortunate enough to attend the Press Release, and here have summarised the key takeaways and highlights (in English!). The survey represents an update in the series, and can be viewed here (English version pending).
Scope
This survey looked at the full lifecycle of IT: the manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal of IT devices globally.
It divided the impacts of the sector into 4 key areas:
- Resource consumption (including minerals and metals)
- Global warming potential
- Fossil fuel consumption
- ‘Fine particle’ pollution
And its scope covered three tiers of devices:
- Tier I: User equipment (such as phones, computers)
- Tier II: Networks (a noted challenge in this area is a significant lack of data in comparison to the physical devices pertaining to the other tiers)
- Tier III: Datacentres (which notably enable the entire digital service to function)
The study covered 30.5 billion devices, which equates to 6 per internet user (the most used are mobile phones, televisions and IoT devices).
Key messages
- The digital world accounts for 40% of the annual ‘sustainable’ budget of an internet user (based on Global Emissions Standard budget to keep Global Warming below 1.5°C)
- The impact of datacentres is growing rapidly, notably due to AI
- This study provides the first global quantification of the impact of servers dedicated to AI
- The depletion of mineral and metal resources is becoming increasingly as important as GHGs
- At a global scale, the impacts of manufacturing devices ought to be considered just as much as those of device usage
High-level Results
During the Press Release, the team highlighted some of the headlines, and some updated metrics. As of this report, some of the global impacts of the digital world are quite hard-hitting:
- 1,832 billion kg CO2e (double of Canada, or 5.5x of France)
- 41 million kg eq. Sb (antimony equivalent — equivalent of 787 tonnes of gold)
- 24,995 billion MJ (megajoules, aka 1 million joules) of fossil fuel energy (equivalent to 4,264 million barrels of petroleum)
It is important to note that CO2 emissions are not the whole picture when it comes to sustainability. The team stressed that the industry’s consumption of global resources is significant and unsustainable — and are concerned that Planetary Boundaries are not sufficiently well-understood, which means people latch onto CO2 metrics exclusively — a narrow perspective which ignores a huge range of relevant environmental concerns.
They contextualised this further, considering the ‘sustainable annual budget’ (based on GES to keep Global Warming below 1.5°C). In relation to this, the Digital world accounts for:
- 27% per person (40% per internet user) of GHG’s
- 19% per person (28% per internet user) of resource, mineral and metal consumption
- 15% per person (23% per internet user) of particle emissions
Tier-by-tier analysis
Reminder of tiers:
Tier I (User Equipment)
Tier II (Networks)
Tier III (Datacentre)
The team presented a graphic breakdown (below) highlighting the impact of various stagers in each tier’s lifecycle, noting that user devices account for over half of the environmental impact of the digital world via usage.
The largest contributors for each area of concern were relatively consistent…
For GHG’s the biggest contributors were (in order):
- Tier I usage
- Tier II usage
- Tier III usage
- Tier I manufacturing
For resource, mineral and metal consumption over 60% of consumption was attributable to Tier I manufacturing.
And for fossil fuel consumption, the biggest contributors were (in order):
- Tier I usage
- Tier II usage
- Tier III usage
- Tier I manufacturing
Focus Areas
AI (Tier III)
The impact of AI is already evident when it comes to the impact of the digital world on the environment — despite its recent arrival (at scale) in the industry, servers configured for AI already represent over 18% of the electricity consumed by datacentres.
Of the total impact of the Digital world, AI servers account for:
- 4% of GHG emissions
- 1% of mineral/metal resource depletion
- 4% of illnesses caused by fine particles
Focus area: IOT (Tier I)
The survey over the years has seen a significant increase in the number of IoT devices, but this has been at a less rapid rate than was expected 5 years ago. That said, the numbers are still impressive; since 2010, the number of IoT devices increased from 1billion to 15 billion.
Of the total impact of the Digital world, IoT devices account for:
- 11% of GHG emissions
- 5% of mineral/metal resource depletion
- 11% of illnesses caused by fine particles
The team noted that the disposal of these devices hass a significant impact on the environment, and identified a need for a dedicated, specific ecosystem of the disposal of these devices.
Focus area: Televisions (Tier I)
Televisions represent the category of user equipment generating the largest environmental impact; the number of ‘active’ televisions has tripled since 2010, representing 1 between each 3.6 users. Furthermore, the environmental impact is growing with screen size, which is now on average 50”!
Of the total impact of the Digital world, televisions account for:
- 13% of GHG emissions
- 25% of mineral/metal resource depletion
The above number represents one of the largest increases analysed in the survey.
Focus area: Smartphones (Tier I)
Smartphones are the most used device (from this study) in the world: 4.6 billion devices, which represents a 31% increase from 2019 to 2023. Apart from IoT, this also represents the largest device increase of the entire survey. The team are concerned that, even if the number of devices stabilises, new developments (e.g. capacity for AI) increase the risk of obsolescence — which encourages the creation of further, more modern devices.
Of the total impact of the Digital world, smartphones represent:
- 5% of GHG emissions
- 11% of mineral/metal resource depletion
That said, they were happy to note that the world is seeing an increase in sales of ‘non-smartphones’, which do have a lesser environmental impact!
Recommendations
The question that these results give rise to, is — how exactly can we reduce the environmental impact of the IT sector?
The GreenIT Association team have three answers:
- Use less equipment
Keep technology minimal, to keep impact minimal. - Use the equipment for longer
As a user, ask, do I really need a new phone?
As a creator, ask, how can I build this software to work on older technology? - Exercise good judgement when it comes to our use of IT and Digital
Encourage conscientiousness, build expertise, and make good choices.
Exercise ‘digital sobriety’.
It is with this guidance, we are equipped to meet modern demands — hoping our knowledge self control can guide our hands as the industry progresses.
