My concept of a biodegradable object expressing someone’s energy consumption related to the web made me ask some important questions about statistics. Indeed, a lot of websites and articles give details about the energy used by a service. While looking for data concerning social networks, something became very clear (or unclear, you decide): how can I be sure the statistics are real ? I see a tweet equals 0.02gr of CO2. But what is 0.02 ? Does it include every parts of the system of posting a tweet (data storage, mobile data, server cooling etc.) or is it just the electricity ?

I contacted Frederic Bordage, expert in green IT and director or greenit.fr. His first answer was that I was right to believe that companies can make the numbers say what they want. For example, the 0.02gr of CO2 is a very abstract number. What does it represent ? How can I compare ? Frederic preferred to speak about it at the Innov’eco conference in 4 days. I will keep you informed.

Statistical Table I was working on. Each cell has a link to the source of the stat.