When Earth Day comes around, the more environmentally active among us may go out and plant trees or join a clean up crew and head off to pick litter in local parks or nearby beaches. Those slightly less engaged may make this the Earth Day they switch to using a reusable water bottle.
For those of us in the tech space, we either have that once-per-year chat about what we need to operate more cleanly or assess how our policies and investments in clean tech are paying off.
Every scroll, stream, and download we either use ourselves or deliver to our end-users requires energy. Storage of images and videos is a particularly heavy consumer of energy. The data centers storing and powering all this activity consume about 1-1.5% of the world’s electricity. To put that in perspective, 1% of global electricity consumption (~270 TWh) is roughly equivalent to Spain’s annual electricity generation, and 1.5% (~406 TWh) surpasses Australia’s annual consumption.
So this Earth Day, we’re asking those of us who operate in the world of image and video: What can we do to shrink our carbon footprint?
At Cloudinary, we help brands deliver visually engaging digital experiences at scale. Just as important, we help them do it in a way that’s energy-efficient and environmentally responsible. Here’s how:
- Lighter files, lower impact. Our platform automatically compresses images and videos without sacrificing quality. That means less data to transfer, faster load times, and less energy used overall.
- Modern formats, smaller sizes. Cloudinary supports next-gen formats like WebP and AVIF, which deliver crisp visuals at a fraction of the file size and save both bandwidth and storage space.
- Right-size delivery, every time. With responsive delivery built in, media is dynamically resized for each user’s device. No more serving giant files to small screens or wasting bandwidth on unnecessary pixels.
- Fewer versions, smarter reuse. Thanks to powerful transformation tools and AI-driven automation, teams can reuse and repurpose assets with ease to cut back on duplicate files and inefficient workflows.
Every megabyte sent across the internet has a real-world cost. But reducing the size and volume of your media is one of the simplest (and smartest) ways to reduce your digital impact.
Cloudinary’s AI-powered tools automatically determine the optimal file size and quality of an image or video, then convert it to a newer, lighter format or codec that best matches the user’s device. As an example, a top international sports apparel brand was able to reduce bandwidth consumption by 40%, from 6.8 TB per day to 4.05 TB per day. On an annualized basis, the company saved 618 TB of bandwidth, which is equivalent to saving 1,890 tons of CO2. And while those savings are higher than the average, if we look at just one month of our data, each customer saved an average of 5.8 tons of CO2, equivalent to roughly 5 long-haul flights per passenger or approximately 35-60 flight hours.
Sustainability doesn’t happen overnight. But small changes can add up to something bigger.
So this Earth Day, if you’re thinking about ways to be more sustainable, consider investing in tools that deliver amazing digital experiences without unnecessary waste.
Want more on how Cloudinary can enhance video and imagery responsibly, contact us here.
From all of us at Cloudinary, happy Earth Day!
