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Environmental costs of social media

Knowledge documents

22 January 2025

Environmental costs of social media

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An illustrative photo of three social media on iPhone's screen

Greenly's article highlights the significant environmental impact of social media and urges both companies and users to take action to reduce emissions.

Publishing org

Greenly

Topics
Geographical descriptors

Albania

Armenia

Austria

Belgium

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria

Croatia

Cyprus

Czechia

Denmark

Estonia

EU-27

Finland

France

Georgia

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Kosovo

Latvia

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Moldova

Montenegro

Netherlands

North Macedonia

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Serbia

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Türkiye

Ukraine

Organisation Type

Academic / Research and VET Institutions

Company with 250 or more employees

Consumer Organisations

International Organisations

Media / Journalist Organisations

SMEs (a company with less than 250 employees)

  • Specific types of tourism

    • Adventure tourism

    • Coastal, maritime and inland water tourism

    • Cultural tourism

    • Ecotourism

    • Education tourism

    • Festival tourism

    • Gastronomy tourism

    • Health and medical tourism

    • MICE tourism

    • Mountain tourism

    • Religious tourism

    • Rural tourism

    • Sports tourism

    • Urban/city tourism

    • Wellness tourism

  • Transition Pathway Strategic Areas

    • R&I on climate-friendly tourism

    • R&I on digital tools for tourism

  • Business activities

    • Other

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Greenly, a climate tech company, published an article in December 2024 highlighting the hidden environmental costs of social media. The article revealed that TikTok is one of the major contributors to emissions, with the average user spending 45.8 minutes per day on the platform. Despite YouTube having more than twice the number of users as TikTok, it does not emit twice the amount of emissions. The article calls on both companies and users to take responsibility for reducing this impact.

For more insights into the environmental impact of social media and their sustainability efforts, follow the attached link to access the full article.

#Digital nomadism #Carbon footprint reduction #Reports

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