EMERGING PLAYERS•Mozilla•ICTFootprint.eu•Amazon Web Services•Google•AppleIf every adult in theUnited States sentone less email a year,we could save 51,560tons of CO2—theequivalent of taking11,217 gas-poweredcars off the road.KEY INSIGHTCompanies are underpressure to curb theirCO2 emissions. Smarthomes contribute toclimate change, too,in the form of digitalemissions.EXAMPLESAll of the technology powering a smarthome requires significant infrastruc-ture: wireless or wireline connectivity,cloud computing, electricity, and phys-ical data centers. While much of thisinfrastructure is invisible to consumers,our smart devices don’t work properlywithout it. The actual energy used whenyou read a Reddit post or order moretoilet paper is extremely small; only afew grams of carbon dioxide are emittedeach time. But consider the scale: Bil-lions of people every day each completedozens (or hundreds) of actions online.The carbon footprint of our devices,the internet, and the data centers werequire account for 1.4% to 3.2% of ourglobal greenhouse gasses.DISRUPTIVE IMPACTAs smart homes proliferate, so too willtheir digital emissions. Some companiesare already working to curb digital emis-sions. For example, Mozilla Firefox’sEnhanced Tracking Protection blocksthird-party trackers while cutting ener-gy usage when a consumer is online. Italso employs search recycling: If some-one types in the search bar to navigateto a site, it requires data processing andenergy consumption. Using auto-com-plete, rather than manually typing, tonavigate back to an intended destinationmeans zero-carbon searching. Smarthome tech impacts a company’s envi-ronmental, social, and governance ef-forts—which means that we can expectnovel changes to curb digital emissionsin the years to come.Mozilla Firefox’s Enhanced Tracking Protectionblocks third-party trackers.Smart Home DigitalEmissions3RD YEAR ON THE LIST© 2022 Future Today Institute190001020304050607080910111312Home of ThingsWatch CloselyInforms StrategyAct Now
