How Green Is Online Activity?

Every year, the world becomes more and more dependent on online activity. However, it is still uncertain exactly how online activity affects the environment or how to effectively reduce these potential consequences. There are two main components of Internet use that consume energy: online activity on the user side and the infrastructure that supplies information to the users. The energy consumed on the user side powers the devices that provide Internet access. The energy consumed on the supply side powers the data centers and servers that respond to user requests.