Yes, our memories have a carbon footprint.

‍

Why does Meerabel exist?

Our mission

Our mission is to help you transform your photos into real memories while reducing their environmental impact. Thanks to Meerabel, you can organize and clean your photos in a responsible way.

In the long term, we want to make the general public aware of the ecological challenges of digital technology, by encouraging a more sustainable use of technologies and by reducing the carbon footprint of photos stored in the cloud. 🌍

‍

The three key challenges of photography

The arrival of smartphones has changed our relationship with photography. In 2024, here are the three major challenges:

1. The multiplication of photos : Between duplicates, similar series, screenshots and reminders, the photo is no longer just a simple memory. Its value is no longer measured only by the emotion it evokes, but also by its usefulness in the present moment.
2. The ecological impact of photos : Every photo taken, especially with increasingly powerful cameras, generates a growing carbon footprint, especially when those photos are stored in the cloud.
3. The exponential growth of photos : In 2024, we estimate that 1,900 billion photos will be taken, representing a potential ecological impact of 8.892 million tons of CO2! 😨

‍

Our solutions to meet them

At Meerabel, we have created an innovative solution to help you quickly sort your photos while having fun 🎉.

Thanks to a personalized artificial intelligence , the application offers you adapted actions to optimize your storing and reduce your digital carbon footprint 🌱.

In addition, for every effort made, Meerabel offer exclusive gifts 🎁, while encouraging a collective approach to responsible sorting 🌍.

Stop letting your photos clutter up your phone and enjoy a pleasant and beneficial experience, Test our application ! 🚀

‍

‍

How did you calculate the digital impact of a photo?

Great question, especially since this does not seem obvious and there is no precise study on the ecological impact of our digital photos!

However, we tried to do this by using a data set from ADEME and a study carried out by Négaoctet to obtain an estimate to raise public awareness about digital sobriety and the impact of our photos when the data is stored in the cloud.

We mainly relied on the equivalent pollution generated by sending an email. This data seems appropriate because it is finally quite similar to the uses associated with a photo: the data is kept for a long time, copied on several media, shared using the Internet, etc.

Here is our estimate:

• ‍ADEME believes that an e-mail of 1 MB is equivalent to 1.17 g of CO2. We considered that a photo weighs an average of 4 MB. So, 1 photo = 4 MB x 1.17 g CO2 eq = 4.68 g CO2 per photo stored in the cloud each year.
• We considered that a photo weighs an average of 4 MB. So 1 photo = 4 MB x 1.17 g CO2 eq = 4.68 g Of CO2 per photo stored in the cloud each year for a single person.
• In Europe, on average, we take 5 photos per day, or 1,825 photos per year: 1,825 x 4.68 = 8.541 kg of CO2 for all photos stored in the cloud over a year. 1,825 x 4.68 = 8.541 kg of CO2 for all photos stored in the cloud over a year.
• Also according to ADEME, A TGV emits 2.93 g of CO2 per kilometer traveled. Reported from the total of the photos, you get: 8,541/2.93 = 2,915km.8,541/2.93 = 2,915km.

And that's how we arrive at this value of 1,825 photos = 2,900 km by TGV. 😱

By considering the entire world population, this represents a colossal impact with 1.9 trillion photos, equivalent to 8.892 million tons of CO2 ! At this scale, it is difficult to conceive the extent of this impact!

‍‍
Of course, this data aims to raise awareness about the ecological impact of digital technology and Give the desire to act, rather than establishing an exact figure, given the complexity of evaluating all the parameters for each case, but we intend to work on it to refine it 💪

The calculation does not take into account for example:

• Nor the thousands of hard drives and USB sticks purchased to keep our precious photos.
• Nor the fact that some photos are widely shared on social networks, incurring network energy costs to power all these servers spread all over the world! For example, look at the impact of your visit to this page estimated by Website Carbon On the way down All the way down !
• Nor the fact that, depending on where the datacenter is stored, the electricity used to make it work is more or less carbon-intensive.
• Nor the fact that we change our smartphone more often, whether due to lack of storage or to be able to take better photos with higher resolution sensors, which therefore results in larger photos.

‍

‍

Feel free to explore other aspects of your digital impact with this great tool from ADEME (we love you!) :

‍