Dark data creates massive emissions by consuming energy on unused cloud storage.
Study suggests knowledge management can reduce dark data’s environmental footprint.
AI tools can help classify, streamline and delete unnecessary stored data.
A 2025 study published by the peer-reviewed academic publication, South African Journal of Information Management, titled From dark data to insight: The role of knowledge management in promoting digital decarbonisation, identified 13 key considerations to build a socio-technical work system — a framework that combines people, processes and technology — using knowledge management (KM) strategies and practices that encourage digital decarbonisation and sustainability.
These considerations include business process, data governance and stewardship, data management, data security, decision-making, interdisciplinary collaboration, knowledge and information management, measurement, organisational culture, organisational goals, organisational learning, technology and organisational structure.
KM strategies can counter environmental issues raised by dark data as it acts like a smart organiser for all the information that organisations have. It reduces waste storage, cuts costs, reduces the environmental impact and ensures that the information kept supports better decision-making.
According to Down To Earth, dark data alone can generate over 5.8mn tonnes of CO2 annually. This is equivalent to emissions from 1.2mn cars per annum. Dark data also accelerates e-waste from hardware replacement and depletes resources through manufacturing such as using recycled raw materials and water-intensive cooling.
What is Dark Data?
Data that goes unused, managed improperly, stored for single-use purposes, cannot be accessed because systems change or is no longer needed as business priorities shift, contributes to the “dark data” stored in servers and storage devices. These consume huge amounts of electricity to keep the data-driven memory intact and add to the digital carbon footprint.
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), a typical data-driven business such as insurance, retail or banking, with 100 employees, might generate 2,983 gigabytes of dark data a day. Retaining that data for a year would produce a carbon footprint equivalent to six flights from London to New York. To put that into perspective, companies globally produce 1.3bn gigabytes of dark data a day–the emissions equivalent of over 3mn flights from London to New York.
The Scale of Digital Waste
In today’s world, huge amounts of data are being created all the time yet more than half of it is never used. It stays in silos, isolated data storage systems or is not managed, cannot be accessed because systems change or is not needed because business priorities change. This “dark data” accumulates in servers and storage devices, consuming electricity and inflating the digital carbon footprint.
The 2025 research published by the South African Journal of Information Management recommended two courses of action for organisations: classification and streamlining.
The study emphasised that organisations can adopt classification as the first step to discover, tag, categorise and assess data to evaluate its relevance and value. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can be used as tools for this purpose.
Streamlining, on the other hand, helps organisations identify duplicated, outdated or irrelevant files and automate their safe deletion.
“Digital sustainability does not demand that organisations do less; it encourages them to do better. Rethinking dark data management is a step towards reducing digital emissions and conserving resources,” Hanile Smuts, one of the authors of the 2025 study ‘From dark data to insight: The role of knowledge management in promoting digital decarbonisation’ told Down To Earth.
Emphasising the idea of introducing “digital decarbonisation”, the October 2022 report on dark data by WEF also underscored that organisations need to reduce the carbon footprint of the digital data itself.
WEF also underscored that even simple steps taken by individuals like deciding which photos and videos are no longer needed could help reduce the looming burden of emissions generated by dark data as every file stored on Apple iCloud or Google Photos adds to the digital carbon footprint.
