4 in 10 consumers will boycott organisations that do not reduce data-related pollution

Two per cent of global energy-related pollution emissions are caused by data centres.

Almost half of the consumers in Singapore (48%) will stop buying from companies that are willfully causing environmental damage by failing to control how much unnecessary or unwanted data it is storing, data from Veritas Technologies’ latest research showed.

According to the research, consumers are concerned that 2% of global energy-related pollution emissions are caused by data centres, which is why they (58%) also believe it’s the responsibility of the organisations that store their information online to delete it when it’s no longer needed.

Two-thirds of consumers also want organisations to focus more on controlling the negative impact of online data storage on the environment which they can do by encouraging customers to close unused or inactive accounts and or providing guidance on deleting obsolete information they no longer need or want.

“To lead the way for Singapore’s decarbonisation journey, business leaders need to be more conscious about the environmental impact – burgeoning but often overlooked – of their business operations,” Andy Ng, VP and managing director of Asia South and Pacific Region at Veritas Technologies, said.

By 2023, data centres are expected to use as much as 8% of all electricity on the planet.

On average, half of the data enterprises store is redundant, obsolete or trivial (ROT) and another 35% is “dark” with unknown value, added Veritas Technologies.

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