Veritas Technologies has released the results of its Consumer Data Sustainability Survey.
The survey found that 49% of respondents (28% of respondents in Japan) believe it is the responsibility of companies managing information online to remove unnecessary information.
In addition, 47% of respondents (25% in Japan) said they would stop purchasing from a company if they learned that the company was not managing unnecessary data volumes and intentionally causing environmental damage.
The survey was conducted with 13,000 consumers worldwide (500 respondents in Japan).
46% of respondents (Japan: 27%) are concerned that 2% of the world’s energy-related pollution emissions are caused by data centers. In contrast, 59% of respondents (Japan: 39%) said they would like companies to focus more on reducing the negative environmental impact of online data storage. This includes urging customers to close unused or inactive accounts and delete information they no longer need.
The company points out that not only the cost of storing data, but also the hidden costs of environmental impact are all top concerns for companies. Data centers operate 24 hours a day and are expected to use as much as 8% of all electricity on Earth by 2030. Most data centers run on fossil fuels and emit about the same amount of CO2 as the airline industry.
The company also said that companies are causing more pollution by storing data they deem unnecessary than data they deem useful. Critical data is about 15% on average.