The data centers for our WEB.DE and GMX brands in Germany are powered by 100 percent electricity from renewable energy sources (“green electricity”). The data centers we use also have energy management systems certified to the international ISO 50001 standard.

In addition, our data centers use hardware with low power consumption to generate less waste heat and require less energy for cooling.

One of the most important sustainability issues in the digital industry is the energy-efficient use of servers. This area holds great potential for reducing energy consumption and using resources more efficiently. Although the volume of data in our data centers has nearly tripled in recent years, we have been able to reduce the number of servers. At the same time, we offer our customers many new products and features, such as Smart Inbox, netID, full-text search, and improved spam detection.

Despite this strong growth and the expansion of our services, the number of our servers has actually decreased. This was made possible by developing and implementing our own private cloud solution in our data centers. This has enabled us to use existing server capacity efficiently. We allocate our computing capacity dynamically and on-demand. This means that only the processing power required at any given moment by applications—such as spam scanning, logins, or the processing of email attachments—is made available. This optimizes system utilization in terms of energy efficiency and storage space. At the same time, we can cushion peak loads. In addition, systems that are not currently needed are disconnected from the power supply and turned on only when there is an urgent need, and the fan speed in the servers is automatically reduced significantly during periods of low load. 

Just as we do for our data centers, we also source 100 percent of the electricity for our office buildings in Germany from renewable energy sources (“green electricity”). Shared devices such as printers switch off automatically after a few minutes of inactivity. Energy-saving default settings are installed on employees’ laptops, and the company smartphones are refurbished. There are also various measures and recommendations in place for our employees. These include, for example, switching off electronic devices such as computers and monitors when leaving the office, and also adjusting the room temperature when the office is not occupied.

To properly recycle internally used IT hardware such as laptops, monitors, and servers, we have been handing over end-of-life devices to our partner AfB since 2011. There, the devices are refurbished as much as possible and resold, thus returning them to the consumer cycle. AfB is a recognized inclusive enterprise. Across Europe, approximately 50 percent of its workforce consists of people with disabilities who are also subject to social security contributions in the primary labor market. 

Extending the useful life of IT hardware conserves resources such as metals. Hardware that cannot be refurbished is recycled by AfB’s partners in a way that allows rare raw materials to be extracted whenever possible and returned to the material cycle.

Our core product is the email accounts offered under the WEB.DE and GMX brands, which include additional storage space. The infrastructure for digital communication and the data centers required to support it generate emissions and consume resources. To reduce our environmental impact, we are implementing the measures described, such as using green electricity and improving energy efficiency. At the same time, digital content sent via email – such as digital brochures or newsletters – helps replace letters and informational mail.