Data fuels business, but we also share a large amount of data even in our personal lives. Even the most benign communications, like chats, requests to stop by the store on your way home, and even memes or pet pictures, are considered data—and where there’s data, there’s a place where it’s stored.

Today’s question: do you know where your data is being stored? And do you know the impact of that storage?

Some Database(s) Out There Contain Your Meme Stash

It might seem as if the data you send from your phone digitally exits the device and enters the recipient’s, but this is not the case. It’s really stored in the cloud, or in a data center. These data centers house the countless messages we send day-to-day on similarly countless hard drives that fuel these cloud services.

And all of these hard drives require power to work.

Depending on the infrastructure used, this number could be shockingly high. The more data that’s stored and used, the more energy is expended. Here’s the quick breakdown of the situation:

• More and more data is being generated and shared.
• For this data to be shared, it is stored in data centers.
• These data centers use up energy to maintain this information.

More Data = More Energy

It makes sense that more data means more energy spent to keep it stored.

Over time, we produce more and more data, and to keep it stored, more energy must be generated. Eventually, this impacts the environment–--and not in a good way. To make matters worse, 68% of data created by businesses is never used again, making it an extraordinarily wasteful practice to store unnecessary data.

You also pay for that extra data storage and any risks associated with holding onto it, so it’s a lose-lose situation in more ways than one.

Keep Dark Data to a Minimum

All you have to do is ask yourself a question: is this message worth sending?

Sometimes an email can be a phone call or an in-person meeting. Sometimes you can share a funny meme that’s on your phone without sharing it through texting. Whatever it takes to send fewer messages, it’s worth thinking about doing it.

While this might not necessarily impact your bottom line that dramatically, it’s still worth thinking about your business’ environmental footprint—and this is an easy place to start.