Wednesday 27 November 2019
Brits are sending more than 64 million “unnecessary” emails every day, which are burning thousands of tonnes of carbon a year.
That’s according to new research, which found the excessive unnecessary emails such as ‘thank you’ and ‘thanks’ that top the list, contribute more than 23,400 tonnes of carbon a year.
Other common unactionable one or two-word pleasantries include ‘have a good weekend’, ‘received’, ‘appreciated’, ‘have a good evening’, ‘did you get/see this?’, ‘cheers’, ‘you too’ and ‘LOL’.
The research commissioned by OVO Energy found more than 16,400 tonnes of carbon could be saved a year if each UK adult sent one less ‘thank you’ email a day.
That’s equivalent to more than 81,000 flights to Madrid or taking 3,334 diesel cars off the road.
The supplier is, therefore, calling on people to “think before you thank”, as 71% of Brits wouldn’t mind not receiving a ‘thank you’ email if they knew it was for the benefit of the environment and helping tackle the climate crisis.
In addition, 87% said they would be happy to reduce their email traffic to help support the same cause.
Katie Russell, OVO Head of Data and Analytics, said: “At OVO Energy we believe we can fight the climate crisis together, making everyday changes that cut carbon - whilst making life better. We want to show people how every action has a carbon impact, even a simple email. We need to change our behaviour at every level, and help people make a start with the easy first steps.”
The supplier has developed a software that identifies when a user has sent a potentially unnecessary email and prompts them to be more thoughtful.