“Smarter Data for a Greener Future”

Tag: Cloud Storage

  • Digital waste sustainability: Data hoarding is killing the planet

    Everyone loves the cloud. It’s sleek, infinite, invisible. Except, it’s not. Somewhere, your old client PDFs, 15 versions of pitch decks, and half-downloaded video files are sitting on a humming server, guzzling electricity. Multiply that by millions of people, and suddenly digital clutter isn’t just a nuisance, it’s a carbon-spewing monster. Digital waste sustainability is more important now than ever.

    This isn’t theoretical. We’ve been trained to believe digital = clean, but every email you archive and every file you forget consumes resources. It’s not just about storage costs anymore. It’s about sustainability.

    Digital waste sustainability needs to be the focus of any company storing data in the cloud.

    The myth of the magical cloud

    Let’s be clear: “the cloud” is just someone else’s hard drive, running 24/7 in a data center that burns through kilowatts like candy. And those centers? They’re not powered by fairy dust. They’re powered by grids, many still reliant on fossil fuels. The more junk you stash, the more energy gets used.

    We wouldn’t tolerate this in our kitchens. Imagine a fridge full of expired takeout and mystery Tupperware from 2018. Yet that’s how we treat our cloud storage.

    So I built Petrichor, to improve digital waste management

    As Ian Hodgkinson from Loughborough University warns in The Guardian, ‘68 % of company data is never reused’, and by 2030, data centers could be guzzling 6 % of the UK’s electricity. That’s a strong case for prioritizing digital waste sustainability by deleting redundant files, excessive emails, and outdated media.

    After watching businesses struggle with bloated drives and blind spots in their sustainability claims, I built something: Petrichor. It’s a lightweight app that scans cloud drives for duplicate, broken, obsolete, or needlessly massive files, and estimates their environmental cost in terms of electricity and CO2.

    It’s not a silver bullet. But it’s a flashlight. You can’t fix what you can’t see, and right now most teams have zero visibility into their digital trash.

    We’re in beta 2 right now, and I’m actively looking for small and midsize businesses to test it. You don’t need to overhaul your infrastructure. Just plug in, scan, and start seeing what’s silently eating up resources behind the scenes.

    Why this matters more than ever

    Corporate sustainability goals mean nothing if digital waste gets a free pass. Most dashboards proudly show “reduced paper use” but say nothing about the 10 terabytes of dead data stored indefinitely.

    Let’s put some numbers on it:

    • A single gigabyte of cloud storage can consume up to 7 kWh per year, depending on infrastructure.
    • Every unnecessary file adds up. Every duplicate, a wasted watt.

    We can’t keep outsourcing our clutter to invisible servers and pretending it doesn’t matter.

    Make digital minimalism part of your sustainability plan

    Here’s the reality: reducing your environmental footprint doesn’t just mean fewer flights and better lightbulbs. It means cleaning your digital house too.

    Start by asking:

    • What files are we storing that no one has touched in years?
    • How many versions of each document do we really need?
    • Are our workflows creating redundant digital junk by default?

    And if you want to see the real impact, give Petrichor a try. I built it because this problem isn’t abstract; it’s everywhere.

    If you’re running a small or midsize business and want to test-drive Petrichor before it goes public, I’d love to hear from you. Your feedback helps shape a tool that not only saves cloud costs but chips away at a quiet but growing environmental mess. Let’s stop pretending digital waste is free. It’s not. But we can clean it up, one drive at a time.

  • Carbon cloud footprint: The hidden cost of cloud data

    Have you ever thought about your cloud storage’s impact on the environment? Like most people, I never considered the storage of my data or the negative consequences thereof. The cloud was an ephemeral entity that absorbed my data into lightweight nothingness. It turns out I was very wrong. As my tech prowess grew, so did my awareness of the true weight of the cloud. The good news is that it doesn’t take much to reduce your monthly costs and the carbon cloud footprint all at the same time.

    Carbon cloud footprint hidden costs

    How data inefficiency can quickly impact your bottom line and your carbon cloud footprint

    Let me give you a common example I see. You have a company with 100 employees and use Google Drive for file sharing. You deal with a lot of marketing, which means you have video files averaging 200mb. Employees worry about causing harm to the original file, so they make a copy. This copy is only used for small edits or formatting. Now you have the same file on 10 drives. That means the weight of just one file has ballooned to consume 2 gigabytes of space! Play this out over 100s of files, over multiple months, and pretty soon your company has terabytes of redundant storage.

    This small inefficiency might seem trivial at first glance, but consider this:

    Cloud data storage costs

    The Google Cloud platform cost of 1TB of data is $20 per month. As your redundant storage expands, so does the cost. This can translate to 100s or 1000s of dollars every year, unnecessarily.

    Electricity usage and environmental impact of cloud storage

    Cloud storage isn’t environmentally free. Data centers consume vast amounts of energy. One gigabyte of data produces approximately 3 kg of CO₂ and 5-7 kWh of electricity per year. That’s like fully charging your cell phone 600 times! This significant carbon cloud footprint contributes to global warming and environmental degradation. Digital storage isn’t going anywhere. Now is the time to focus on minimizing the impact.

    AI and processing impact on your carbon footprint

    The scanning of entire storage sets with AI is happening daily. Every redundancy adds computational time. The increased processing contributes to energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and monthly costs. With the rise of AI, there’s never been a more important time to have lean data practices.

    To put this even more in perspective, most SMBs store thousands of gigabytes of data without realizing the energy and financial cost. 10 TB of redundant data is equivalent to powering 5 average US homes for a year all while emitting ~20 metric tons of CO2! Increasing your data efficiency means reducing costs and lowering your carbon cloud footprint.

    What can you do about your inefficient cloud storage?

    Most small and medium-sized businesses don’t realize their storage impact. The overlooked redundancies cost you time and resources. They can even go against your core values. These unnoticed issues can hinder growth, productivity, and competitiveness in the market.

    Evergreen Analytics Partners offers solutions and insights geared toward SMBs. Our bespoke systems focus on your objectives and goals. We want to help you cut expenses, use less electricity, and reduce your carbon footprint. Our methods are realistic, immediate, actionable, and designed for efficiency.

    More ways to reduce your cloud carbon footprint

    For a deeper look at practical enterprise strategies, this guide from TechAhead outlines actionable ways to cut cloud-related emissions, ranging from workload optimization to architecture redesign.

    Additionally, our ground-breaking technology, Petrichor, is in its second beta phase. Designed to identify and manage data inefficiencies, it’s one way we can combat the rise of heavy data. We’re looking for SMBs that want to be proactive with their storage. While in beta, you can try this novel software for free. Early users can impact Petrichor’s development and gain from its potent insights.

    Ready to improve your data efficiency?

    Evergreen Analytics Partners is here to assist SMBs. We will be your partner in sustainability initiatives. At the same time, we can cut expenses and streamline your data management procedures. Arrange your customized data audit or find out more about our consulting services. Get in touch with us today.

    Your data doesn’t have to cost the Earth, or your bottom line.