Wednesday 27 November 2019

Brits’ ‘thank you’ emails burning thousands of tonnes of carbon

Brits’ ‘thank you’ emails burning thousands of tonnes of carbon

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.

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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