title: CALCULATING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF DIGITAL PRESERVATION: A Case Study
creators: Mikko Tiainen Juha Lehtonen Heikki Helin Johan Kylander
abstract: Environmental sustainability is becoming an important factor in digital preservation. We have calculated the carbon footprint of our Finnish national digital preservation services, which we provide for cultural heritage and research sectors. We concentrate on the carbon footprint of manufacturing hardware and shipping the equipment to data centers, and the carbon footprint of the hardware service life and employees related to the services. Using data provided to us by the hardware manufacturers and other sources, we show that the majority of the emissions come from manufacturing and shipping of hardware, whereas the emissions created during the service life has a smaller role. As a whole, the annual carbon footprint of the services is smaller than the annual carbon footprint of three average Finns.
keywords: sustainability carbon footprint data centers hardware manufacturing hardware service life