Our Purpose & Mission
Sustainable technology serving digital sobriety
As a mission-driven corporation, Meerabel has embedded its primary goal in its bylaws: raising awareness about digital pollution and actively reducing it.
To accomplish this, we make our technology accessible to all, convinced of the positive impact it creates when used by an engaged community.
Digital pollution represents approximately 3 to 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions—exceeding commercial aviation. Storing thousands of redundant photos across cloud datacenters consumes persistent energy for server cooling and automated background synchronization.
The Three Key Challenges of Digital Photos
Exponential Accumulation
Between bursts, duplicates, screenshots, and visual reminders, photos are no longer just cherished memories. Their volume clutters both our minds and devices.
The Hidden Ecological Cost
Every high-resolution photo generates carbon emissions, especially when replicated across multiple remote cloud servers and backup nodes.
Staggering Global Growth
Over 1.9 trillion photos are captured globally each year, representing an ecological footprint of millions of tons of COâ‚‚ equivalent.
How Did We Calculate the Carbon Footprint of a Photo?
With no single study dedicated to photo life cycles, we combined official reference benchmarks from ADEME with research from Négaoctet environmental engineering.
1 MB email ≈ 1.17 g CO₂ (ADEME reference benchmark).
Average 4 MB photo: 4 MB × 1.17 g = 4.68 g CO₂ per photo per year in the cloud.
1,825 photos/year: 1,825 × 4.68 g = 8.541 kg CO₂ per year per user.
High-speed train: 2.93 g CO₂/km → 8.541 kg / 2.93 g = 2,915 km by train!
ADEME estimates that an email with a 1MB attachment emits approximately 19g COâ‚‚e across transmission and storage infrastructure. For an average 4MB photo stored in the cloud, this translates to ~4.68g COâ‚‚ per photo per year.
Extrapolated to the 1,825 photos captured annually per person, this equals over 8.5 kg CO₂ per year per user—equivalent to a 2,900 km trip on high-speed rail!
Interactive ADEME Simulator: Discover Your Digital Footprint
Explore the official ADEME tool to compare the carbon footprint of photo storage, video streaming, and emails in real-time.
Download the app right now!
Join the Meerabel community with our free photo organizing app on Android (Google Play) and iPhone (iOS). A surprise awaits you 👇
