It is estimated that, daily and worldwide, around 100,000 million WhatsApp messages are sent, 66,000 photos are uploaded per minute and 60% of emails are not opened. If we focus on Spain, more than 30,000 million photographs are stored on mobile phones. All of this consumes energy. that if it is not renewable, it emits tons of CO2. It is called digital garbage and it is the great invisible garbage of our planet.
In order to make the population aware of this invisible garbage and its impact on the environment, the Ecology and Development Foundation (ECODES), with the support of the Accenture Foundation, has launched a project with which it is intended that Spain drastically reduce the “invisible” trash you generate every day.
Through the app, Digital CO2ach, the well-known non-profit organization invites the population to Eliminate your digital waste. Citizens who download it will be able to learn more about it, as well as clean all those files from their mobile phones that they no longer need, thus achieving significant energy savings and in some cases also reducing the CO2 footprint.
To make the application known, in the garbage containers of the cities that adhere to the project, it will be incorporated a QR code that will redirect to the information campaign at DigitalCO2ach.com and the download of the app. This will show the data of digital waste eliminated collectively among all those who use the app, as well as the equivalent of energy saved.
Therefore, the involvement of town halls of all the municipalities in the national territory, thanks to its ability to reach citizens, it will be key in raising awareness of the population on the matter.
The first to join this initiative is the Torrelodones Town Hall which, as part of its commitment to sustainable development, is a pioneer in Spain in raising awareness of this issue and promoting the use of the DigitalCO2ach app in the Madrid municipality.
Project presentation
During the presentation of the project, at the Torrelodones Town Hall, Alfredo Garcia-Plata Fernandezmayor of Torrelodones, wanted to make clear the reason for becoming the first city council in Spain to join the plan, “Acting as a community is critical to making a real impact on digital waste. Our firm commitment to the environment and interest in promoting the sustainable habits of our citizens have been the main reasons why we wanted to be the first to join Digital CO2ach. We hope that, thanks to initiatives like this, Torrelodones can become one of the pioneering municipalities in reducing the digital footprint”.
In the words of Pablo Barrenechea, director of the Climate Action area at Ecodes, “The invisible footprint” is one of the main challenges for our society, since we are still not aware of our bad digital habits and the garbage we generate. Digital CO2ach is a project that can be scaled to any country or territory that helps us reduce our invisible environmental footprint and act against climate change”.
