Computer Emissions Fund

Do you know?

Of the 7 billion people on this planet, over 1 billion people use a computer and over 4.8 billion use a mobile phone.
Every day, there are more than 2.7 billion facebook ‘Likes’, over 2 billion videos are viewed on YouTube and over 16.7 billion SMS are sent. These figures are increasing every year because … computers are so much part of our everyday life

It is estimated that a quarter of the world population are connected to the internet, generating significant global emissions from personal and business use of computers and Australia has the largest carbon footprint per capita than any other nation.

WithOneSeed encourages citizens and business to take responsibility for the impact of their computer use on the environment. Individuals and organisations who wish to voluntarily offset their computer technology use, can make an annual donation of $5 per computer and device to the With One Seed Computer Emissions Fund.

Victorian schools have expressed interest in taking part in the Royal Botanic Gardens environmental science and agroforestry education project and they are also proposing to take part in the Computer Emissions Fund by promoting annual donations of $5 per student, per year.

WithOneSeed will pass income raised through the Computer Emissions Fund to Community Tree Cooperatives, enabling the development of village-based economies.

The Community Tree Coopperatives will pay each farmer for the trees they have maintained annually, as well as providing funding for whole-community development projects. A small administration fee will also be paid from these funds.

Further opportunities may arise through the creation of micro-financing activities funded through tax-deductible donations from Australian businesses with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs.

Computers use large amounts of energy.

Computers use large amounts of energy, and through the usage of that energy they cause substantial emissions of greenhouse gases.

Computer use is responsible for nearly 2.7 percent of Australia’s total carbon emissions. More significantly, it is directly responsible for more than 7 per cent of all electricity generated in Australia.  Further, on average, employees in Australian enterprises are each responsible for 0.75 tonnes a year of carbon emissions.

ICT consumption is expected to expand rapidly during the next decade and the ICT footprint will account for over 4% of total carbon emission by 2020.1

1 ‘Carbon and Computers in Australia The Energy Consumption and Carbon Footprint of ICT Usage in Australia in 2011.’ A report for the Australian Computer Society by Connection Research www.acs.org.au/attachments/ICFACSV4100412.pdf

Computers damage the environment in three ways:

Manufacturing - Primary materials extraction, primary materials processing, component manufacturing, assembly, packaging, and distribution.

Usage - Purchase of electricity that emits carbon into the atmosphere through generation

Disposal - Most computers at the end of their life cycle are thrown into landfill polluting the soil. Silica, Plastics, Iron, Aluminium, Copper, Lead, Zinc, Nickel, Tin, Mercury, Silver, Cobalt, Gold, Selenium, Manganese, Arsenic and Cadmium are some of the chemical inside computers.2

WithOneSeed invites you to make a difference

An annual donation to the Computer Emissions Fund will:

• support the reforestation of subsistence farmland
• raise living standards of families in Timor Leste, many of whom live on less than 80 cents a day
• ensure children can complete primary school and;
• build regional partnerships with our neighbours in the Asia Pacific

Individuals and organisations who wish to voluntarily offset their technology use can make an annual donation of $5 per computer they use to the Computer Emissions Fund.

Distribution of funds

The fund will be used by the Community Tree Cooperatives to plant, manage and maintain trees in reforestation projects in Timor Leste.

Reforesting will improve water and soil conservation, reduce soil degradation, erosion, increase crop yields and contribute to the removal of carbon from the atmosphere. The income paid for this work will enable the growth of village-based economies to build resilient communities. 

Your first year donation will be used for planting trees with your subsequent year donations being used for maintaining the trees. Reduce your computer’s carbon footprint now by supporting WithOneSeed here.

WithOneSeed has also established a Community Investment Fund to provide funding for whole-community economic development projects.