![]() The organisation has a strong approach to supporting open source software and to data protection and privacy. Mozilla is an international non-profit organisation whose revenues are reinvested in product development. They are globally driven by profit and profitability to satisfy their shareholders. ![]() Google and Microsoft are web giants (GAFAM) that are among the largest American companies dominating the global digital market. Publishers use it for their own needs, to develop new features or to pay their shareholders. Multiplied by the number of Internet users and searches in the world, the sums are considerable. Advertisers are willing to pay search engine publishers to show their ads. But it is complex software, in which thousands of man-hours have been invested and are continuously invested by the publishers, which is not free! The publishers of this software need to finance it an important source of income is available to them: advertising. The use of search engines is free for users: no installation fees, no search fees. ( 16) Lilo uses electricity produced in France, which makes it 96% decarbonised. ( 15) Ecosia is 200% renewable thanks to the solar energy it produces. 27% of energy purchased in 2019 was from renewable sources. ( 14) On another scale, Mozilla has a transparent and inclusive approach to sustainability. ( 13) Similarly, Microsoft has committed to 100 percent renewable energy by 2025, set a goal of 24/7 carbon-free power by 2030, and purchased 7.8 gigawatts of renewable energy projects globally. Since 2017, Google has been using renewable energy to cover its annual electricity consumption, has set a goal of 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030 for all its operations, and has purchased 5.5 gigawatts of renewable energy in 2019. The giants Google and Microsoft have committed to renewable energy. The sector as a whole is increasingly moving towards renewable energy, with some organisations being more ambitious than others. There is little public benchmarking of the type of energy used by them. It is difficult to compare the carbon intensity of electricity consumed by web browsers and search engines. ![]() Browsers and search engines that block the transfer or do not collect personal data (Firefox, Lilo, Ecosia) contribute to less direct and indirect energy consumption. The more data that circulates, the more energy is consumed. ( 12)įurthermore, every internet browsing or search produces data, which is sometimes transmitted, collected and stored by dozens or even hundreds of companies interested in this information (big data). While the browsers differ little overall in terms of pure navigation, there are significant differences in energy consumption for other functions, with a ratio of more than 3 (Firefox Preview/Focus in the lead). ( 11)Īt the top of the list of the most energy-efficient browsers in 2020 are: Vivaldi, Firefox Preview, DuckDuckGo, Lilo, Kiwi. Search engines that do not automatically display an interactive map or widget are also less energy intensive (Ecosia, StartPage, Lilo). The more additional functionality there is, the more power hungry the system is. In general, a shorter search process has less energy and battery impact and can help reduce the overall carbon impact of the whole chain. A search consumes more energy via a mobile browser than with an application (64% carbon savings on average). The energy consumption of internet searches is based on both network and user energy consumption. Some browsers are also more energy efficient than others. ![]() While traditional web browsers and search engines dominate the global market ( 5), they do not all have the same ecological footprint and more ethical and/or ecological search engines like Ecosia or Lilo are starting to stand out, especially in Europe. ( 4) It is estimated that Google receives 99 000 requests per second. ( 3)Īlmost 93% of Internet traffic comes from search engines. ( 2) By way of comparison, the energy consumption of a data centre is equivalent to that of 30 000 people in Europe. Data centres and data transmission networks are responsible for nearly 1% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. The electricity used comes mainly from non-renewable energies that pollute. As for a computer, these installations are very energy consuming. This data is stored in infrastructures: computer centres – or data centres. ( 1) Browsing or searching on the Internet consists in transmitting information materialised by data. Today, digital technology accounts for 3 to 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and this share is constantly increasing.
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