Make SMS an “eco-responsible” asset for your business

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18 July 2022

Customer strategy

According to a report by ADEME , excessive use of digital devices is responsible for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions and this share is likely to double by 2025. Invisible, the digital that we use massively on a daily basis nevertheless consumes extremely polluting and energy-intensive resources in order to operate continuously. How can companies communicate while limiting their impact on the planet? Which is the most ecological tool: SMS, email, or instant messaging applications? We take stock.

What is digital pollution?
Without realizing it, we pollute every day. When we turn on our computer or when we communicate with our colleagues or friends via the web and/or our smartphones, we pollute. Sending messages, whether by email, SMS or via an instant messaging application such as WhatsApp, is not trivial. This type of action has consequences on the environment .

Indeed, it takes a lot of energy to operate the connected devices that manage buy argentina number database and transport data. This energy consumption emits significant amounts of CO2 .

According to ADEME, although digital technologies facilitate our daily activities and communication, the pollution generated by the traffic of this data , which continues to increase (+25% per year), has a considerable impact on our lives and the environment.

8 to 10 billion emails (excluding spam) are exchanged every hour and 180 million searches are carried out on Google. Each of these actions emits greenhouse gases, which are harmful to the environment. Digital pollution therefore results from the use of new technologies that we make of them every day.

Also read: Online commerce: why and how to dematerialize my business?

Which communication tool pollutes the least?
According to the analyses of researcher Mike Berners-Lee, author of the book How bad are bananas? on the environmental footprint of everyday products, sending an email, a text message or a communication via an instant messaging application does not have the same impact on the environment.

Emails
According to the data collected by the researcher, emails are the most polluting . The carbon emissions of an email vary depending on its content: from 0.3 g of CO2 for spam to 4 g for a classic email and up to 50 g of CO2 for an email containing a photo or a large attachment.

Indeed, according to the ADEME report, the impact of sending an email depends on the weight of the attachments, the storage time on a server, but also the number of recipients. Sending the same email to 10 recipients multiplies CO2 emissions by 4.

Instant messaging applications
Sending a message via a messaging application such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger would be almost as polluting as sending an email .

There is no precise data to estimate their carbon footprint. However, these data flows use the Internet, just like emails, so their carbon footprint should be close to it.

It also depends on the content that is sent through these instant messaging apps. The more content there is other than plain text (GIFs, emojis and images), the bigger the carbon footprint.

The SMS
Mike Berners-Lee's calculations reveal that SMS is by far the least polluting communication tool! The researcher estimates the carbon footprint of an SMS at 0.014 g of CO2.

Indeed, text messages use less energy and emit less CO2 than emails, since they are transported by telephone technology and not via the web. The data is not processed and does not consume energy in the same way.

Additionally, reading a text message on a phone with a small screen uses less battery life than reading an email on a computer with a large screen.

Why choose SMS as an eco-responsible means of communication?
In addition to the fact that sending marketing SMS offers an exceptional opening rate of over 96% , choosing this lever to communicate, whether internally with your employees or via marketing SMS campaigns to your prospects and customers, means committing to more responsible communication.

Nowadays, more and more companies are integrating the notion of environment into their overall process. This is notably one of the demands of current consumers towards brands.

Following various ecological awarenesses, consumers are now very attached to respecting the environment and want to give meaning to their consumption. Environmental issues are therefore more than ever at the heart of their concerns and they expect companies to really engage in this fight.

Thus, choosing SMS as the main mode of communication and communicating about this ecological commitment allows us to:

use a communication channel strongly encouraged by ADEME;
reduce your digital carbon footprint;
meet the demands of today's consumers;
provide a positive image of your company;
stay ahead of your competitors.
So, what are you waiting for to start greener communication and adopt SMS?