Recent research shows that digital technology is increasingly more sustainable than the traditional; methods for media consumptions have changed.

The rise of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has made Mp3 players and laptops everyday items. Climate change has prompted us to assess our habits, including digital consumption's carbon cost (the cost of greenhouse gas emissions, or GHG, determined by the market under a carbon trading scheme, or implicitly by other measures). Kenneth G. Brill of Forbes magazine points out the paradox ICT is facing today; data centers are now more criticized because their energy usages can be measured easily. However, research suggests that some of these devices may be more energy efficient than the “invisible,” or unmeasured, energy costs of traditional methods. The changes in media production and logistics suggest that the environmental techno-utopia is possible.

The research on the impact of climate change is spreading. Julie's Bicycle is a not-for-profit company in the United Kingdom that is trying to “create a low carbon creative future.” Their research has lead to an evaluation of the externalities of the music industry. As defined by the Economist, externalities are the costs or benefits arising from an economic activity that affect someone other than those engaged in the economic activity, and so are not reflected fully in prices. For example, CD packaging causes a majority of the music industry's direct GHG emissions. Julie's Bicycle's report, Impacts and Opportunities: Reducing the Carbon Emissions of CD Packaging, presents hopeful information. If CD packaging changes to a consumer-preferred cardboard sleeve from the plastic jewel case, then 95% of these emissions will be eliminated. This also has a small effect on the quantity of labor needed for the album printing and publishing sub-industry. Packaging contributes 10% of total GHG emissions from the UK music industry.

The next digital remodel for media should be in distribution. Since the early twentieth century, playable music follows this distribution path: the album printing and publishing house, the warehouse, the distribution center, and then the consumer. Recently, a report from environmental researchers Jonathan G. Koomey, H. Scott Matthews, and Christopher L. Webb evaluated the energy and climate change impacts of music. If music is bought through the century-old method, each album purchase produces 3,200 grams of carbon dioxide. Carbon is a byproduct of the combustion of methane gas, gasoline, diesel, propane, kerosene, wood and coal. The best consumption scenario, in terms of carbon emissions, is when albums are downloaded as mp33/mp4 files from an online music service for digital use.

“Move bits, not atoms,” says MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte, who predicted the digital transition. In commercial society, we should look for positive practices that technology will provide. We’re in a technological age in which innovation constantly increases energy efficiency. The world’s politicians are confronting climate change, prompting global reevaluation of technology and its contribution to pollution. Individuals can approach climate change as well, by downloading their media.

References:

Weber, Christopher L., Koomey, Jonathan G., Matthews, H. Scott. (August 17, 2009) "The Energy and Climate Change Impacts of Different Music Delivery Methods." Retrieved November 15, 2009 from Intel website:
http://download.intel.com/pressroom/pdf/CDsvsdownloadsrelease.pdf.

Julie's Bicycle. (February 2009) "Impacts and Opportunities: Reducing the Emissions of CD Packaging." Retrieved November 15, 2009 from Julie's Bicycle website:
http://www.juliesbicycle.com/research

For externalities defintion: Bishop, Matthew. (August 2000) Essential Economics. Bloomberg Press, August 2004.

Brill, Kenneth G. (October 21, 2009) "Why Data Center Aren't Energy Hogs." Retrieved November 15, 2009 from the Forbes magazine website:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/20/datacenter-bits-atoms-technology-cio-network-energy.html.