The Ecological Impact of Email Spam and How You Can Respond to it

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It’s everyone’s responsibility to do their bit for the environment and this includes what you do online. Recycling, car-sharing and reusing materials are important but so is saving electricity via email.

Here’s all you need to know about preventing the environmental impact of spam.

How does spam impact the environment?

Believe it or not, spam uses around 33 million kilowatt-hours of energy per year and nearly 80% of the energy consumed by spam is used by people deleting it from their inbox. In today’s technological world, spam and unsolicited emails have become a part of everyday life but putting up with spam is not the only option.

A clean inbox is not only beneficial for your efficiency as a business, university or enterprise but limiting spam will reduce energy wastage. FIgures have shown that it takes just three average office workers’ yearly received emails to surpass that of another human’s carbon footprint for all their activity for a whole year. If your inbox is full of spam then your email activity could be harming the planet much more than you realise.

How can you prevent spam?

Spam is not only dangerous but very irritating when it lands in your inbox. All email platforms will have a built-in spam detection filter, however, these often don’t make the cut. Alternatively, investing in high-quality anti-spam software will keep your inbox clear and reduce your carbon footprint.

You can reduce the ecological impact of spam by:

  • Use proficient anti-spam software that will filter your mail quickly and easily to prevent spam.
  • Reducing the size of your emails by compressing images and being mindful of large attachments.
  • Regularly cleaning up your subscription lists.
  • Check your emails thoroughly before sending to ensure they contain all the necessary (and correct) information, to avoid the need for a follow-up email.
  • Linking to files or information online rather than adding an attachment.

Did you know that MailCleaner’s data centre is powered by green energy? We’re committed to the environment and providing spam solutions that work for you! Prevent unwanted spam and safety risks today with our reliable software, plus you’ll be contributing to our environmental work! Get in touch with us today to eliminate 99% of spam from your email network.