E-litter: Nudging Email Usage Behavior One Byte at a Time

DOI

The ubiquity of technology and the “zero-cost” nature of cloud services result in users overlooking the environmental impact of their online usage. While some cloud services (e.g., LLM inference) have significantly higher environmental impact, this work focuses on emails, a service widely used yet representing one of the smallest usages of cloud resources. Just as recycling a piece of paper may not have a great impact but can contribute to environmental awareness, deleting emails symbolizes a small yet meaningful behavior change - a 'gesture' toward environmental responsibility. In this work, we propose E-litter, a mobile system combining a bulk-delete UI with eco-feedback to encourage email deletion. By representing email storage in tangible terms (e.g., sheets of paper), E-litter nudges users to become more aware of cloud usage. A user study with Gmail users shows that E-litter significantly increases email deletion, highlighting the potential of UI and eco-feedback in impacting cloud usage behavior.