Downloading Music to Lower Your Carbon Footprint

Going digital is a good way to lower your carbon footprint when it comes to buying music. A new study has been released that assesses the carbon impact of various ways to purchase music from downloading to driving to the mall to buy a CD. It is not shocking to see that digital music is the best way to get tunes.

What this means for the future of music piracy? Well I think yet again we may find that piracy is surprisingly green.

That scenario involves a customer buying a CD online and having it delivered via a light-duty truck; the more carbon-intensive options examined by the study are express air shipment of the CD, and the customer visiting a store to buy the CD.

The advantage for digital comes largely because CDs must be manufactured, packaged and transported over long distances.

Even in a situation in which a consumer downloads the music — and then burns it onto a CD and puts it in a CD case — the carbon differential is 40 percent in favor of the download, the study found. If the downloaded music is not burned onto a CD, the differential rises to 80 percent.

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