Your digital footprint has two parts: the emissions from making your phones, laptops and TVs, and the electricity used to run them and the networks and data centres behind every app. Headlines tend to focus on streaming and email. The evidence says the devices matter more.
This page is part of our guide to reducing your carbon footprint, in the carbon footprint section. Buying devices is also covered under shopping, with other things you buy.
Where do digital emissions come from?
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| Part | What it covers | Your main lever |
|---|---|---|
| Making devices | Materials, manufacturing and shipping of phones, laptops, tablets, TVs and consoles | Buy fewer, keep them longer, buy refurbished |
| Powering devices | The electricity your devices use at home | Switch them off, choose efficient models, use renewable electricity |
| Networks and data centres | The infrastructure that stores and delivers data and services | Small for individuals; mostly in the hands of providers |
Keep your devices longer
UK government figures estimate the full supply-chain emissions of spending on electronics at some of the highest rates per pound of any household purchaseSource 1:
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| Device type | Emissions (kg CO₂e per £) |
|---|---|
| Phones | 1.83 |
| TV, audio and video equipment | 1.72 |
| Computers and IT equipment | 1.54 |
As of Oct 2026 · Source: [1] Defra spend-based emissions multipliers, 2023
As an example with these figures, a £500 phone comes to about 0.9 tonnes of CO₂eSource 1. Keeping it for four years instead of two halves its share per year. These are UK averages per pound spent, so treat the result as a rough guide rather than the footprint of a particular model.
The IPCC lists the intensive use of longer-lived, repairable products among the low-carbon options people can adoptSource 4.
- Use devices until they stop meeting your needs, not until a new model comes out.
- Repair them. A new battery or screen can give a device years more use.
- Buy refurbished when you do need a replacement.
- Pass old devices on, or recycle them through a proper scheme.
- Protect what you have with a case and screen protector, so an accident doesn’t force a replacement.
- Keep software tidy: install updates, clear storage you don’t need and replace a tired battery, so an older device stays quick enough to keep using.
Choosing your next device
When you do need something new, a few choices keep its footprint down:
- Buy what you need, not the biggest model. In spend-based estimates, emissions rise with what you spendSource 1, and the features you won’t use still had to be made.
- Prefer refurbished or second-hand for phones, laptops and tablets.
- Check the support period. A device that gets software updates for longer stays useful for longer.
- Avoid buying two devices where one will do, such as a separate tablet you rarely use.
Streaming and everyday use
Streaming is smaller than people think. A Carbon Trust white paper, written with University of Bristol researchers and media companies in the DIMPACT project and funded by Netflix, estimated the footprint of one hour of video-on-demand streaming at about 55 g CO₂e in EuropeSource 2. It found that:
- The viewing device is typically the largest part of the footprintSource 2.
- Video quality matters little. Moving from high definition to standard definition had only a very small impact on emissionsSource 2.
- Network equipment keeps getting more efficient, and with more renewable electricity the carbon intensity of these services is expected to fallSource 2.
To put that in proportion: two hours of streaming a day for a year, at 55 g an hour, comes to about 40 kg CO₂e. The £500 phone in the example above carries more than 20 times that.
Skip the email clean-out
Deleting old emails and photos targets a tiny part of your footprint. Keeping your laptop a few years longer targets the emissions of making it.
Use less power at home
Devices also use electricity while you run them. Switch off devices and chargers you aren’t using, and use energy-saving settings. On a high-carbon grid, switching to renewable electricity cuts the emissions of every device at once; it had a median saving of 1.6 tonnes of CO₂e per person a year in a review of 53 studiesSource 3.
At work
If you have a say in your organisation’s IT, the same rules apply at a larger scale: longer replacement cycles, refurbished equipment, and repair before replacement. For companies, purchased equipment falls under scope 3; see scope 1, 2 and 3 explained.
Working from home
Digital tools can cut travel. Working from home cut commuting emissions by between 0.1 and 1.4 tonnes of CO₂e per person a year in the same review, with an average of 0.4Source 3. The IPCC notes that teleworking, digitalisation and dematerialisation may reduce demand for travel and freight, but that some of these changes can lead to more demand for transport and energy, reducing the gainSource 4. For work trips, see travel.
Next steps
Digital is one part of your footprint, and for most of it the fix is simply to keep what you already own working for longer. Check your biggest sources with the carbon footprint calculator and start there. When you have made the cuts you can, reduce vs offset explains where credits fit for what remains.