It never struck me before that the climate was paying the price for my excessive politeness (sorry climate!).
Every ‘thanks so much’, ‘that’s brilliant, thank you’ and ‘cheers’ email that I send as a matter of principle and good manners has been responsible for releasing its own little bit of carbon into the atmosphere. My laptop, the network, the Cloud (ahem, getting a bit sketchy now) and the machine on which it is read are all implicated in these minor acts of climate terrorism; each using little bits of energy in the conveyance of my most sincere gratitude.
The research, conducted by energy company, OVO, has been around a while, so many people may have already been encouraged by it to adopt ‘think, before you thank’ email habits (sorry I judged you rude, I now understand!).
But it was news to me, so I imagine it’s still news to others too.
It found that us Brits send more than 64 million unnecessary emails every day and suggested that, if every adult in the UK were to send one fewer ‘thank you’ emails a day, we would, collectively, save more than 16,433 tonnes of carbon a year. That’s the equivalent carbon generated by over 80,000 flights to Madrid (or at least it was in 2019).
Granted, my individual contribution to this is pretty small. But I can’t unknow this now. So, the question is, how do I reconcile my innate mannerliness with my commitment to doing what I can to reduce my carbon footprint?
To thank or not to thank
I could go cold turkey and simply stop doing it. As a communicator, this just feels inherently wrong. I could start texting my thanks – since a text message provides a lower carbon option. But responding to an email message through a completely different medium doesn’t sit quite right with me either. So, I’ve alighted on adding a short footer to my emails. There’s room for improvement, I’m sure, but for now I’m thinking something along these lines:
“This email has a carbon footprint. It’s tiny, but it’s there. I’m trying to reduce the number of emails I send, so please don’t think me rude if I don’t respond with a ‘thank you’. Just consider yourself well and truly thanked.”
halo copy
And, following an incredible day’s Carbon Literacy training last week, led by Better Not Stop’s unstoppable Hannah Cox, I’m now even more aware of the impact that some of my other email habits are having on my carbon footprint. I’m feeling a Decarbonist Manifesto coming on…