Reduce CO2 by Checking Your Email Every Day

In the first month of the new year, an environmental campaign was held like a cool breeze refreshing even the mind. It’s “Inbox Sweep” Challenge, which is to delete the emails piled up in your mailbox. It was held for a month in January as the first activity of the “Clean Action Campaign in Real Life” planned by the Intl. WeLoveU Foundation (Chairwoman Zahng Gil-jah).

According to the Ministry of Environment, each email emits 4 grams of greenhouse gas. This figure takes into account the power consumed to send and receive data via email. Greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by removing unnecessary emails and blocking spam emails.

Therefore, the WeLoveU Foundation also participated in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the “Inbox Sweep Challenge.” As soon as the challenge began, the reviews of the WeLoveU members from all over the world were quickly posted through social media. Many responded that it was surprising and interesting that the earth environment can be protected by a simple act such as emptying the mailbox.

A member with the ID Sunho031207 wrote that it took him quite a long time to empty his spam mailbox due to the large number of spam mails and that he decided to “delete spam mails every day from now on.” Another member with the nickname Gamsaram said that he came to be aware of the environmental pollution problem while participating in the challenge and wrote that he felt great while deleting each email. A member in the United States wrote, “I deleted a total of 63,590 emails. Thank you for letting me realize the effect of deleting my emails.” A member from Malaysia wrote, “I’m thankful that I can help save the earth through this challenge. I’m going to continue to delete my emails to make the world a better place.”

There were many more reviews such as “I’m going to introduce this campaign to people I know” and “My husband and I are going to participate in this campaign with our kids.” Members from 21 different countries including Korea, India, the U.S., the Philippines, and Japan, participated in this challenge and deleted a total of 1,873,706 emails. This obtained the same effect as planting 1,135 trees by reducing 7,494 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

“I created multiple email accounts and forgot about them. This time, I deleted all the email accounts that I don’t use, keeping only one account. I felt as if something heavy was taken off of my chest,” said one member.

The WeLoveU, which opened the New Year with the “Inbox Sweep Challenge,” is planning to continue the “Clean Action Campaign in Real Life” by carrying out a different environmental protection challenge each month. The goal is to reduce carbon emission and to obtain the effect of planting 30 million trees by showing people ways to protect the environment that they can easily practice in their daily lives and guiding them to save energy and resources at home. The challenge that will take over the baton in February is “Walk and Ride Challenge.”