It's World Environment Day today, a day about reflecting on Humans impact on the environment overseen by United Nations Environment Program. It seems a good time to look at some of the major advantages using web-based software (or webapps), like Letopedia, have over traditional desktop run software. These advantages are not only environmentally friendly, but your business will benefit from them in terms of money saved.

1. Webapps run through your Internet browser, no special software needs to be installed or maintained, and the software is not platform specific. This means you don't have to buy a computer and run a specific operating system because your software vendor only makes software for Microsoft Windows for example. You can use a computer with a free operating system such as CentOS.
2. Because no software other than the Internet browser is needed, you don't need to worry about using newer computers to run the sophisticated desktop software. You can use your older machines for longer. This means that computers are not replaced as often, leading to much less waste. The average lifespan of a computer in the developed world was 2 years in 2005, and each year when these computers are disposed of they make up most of the 20-50 million tonnes of electronic waste thrown away of each year.
   The computers are left in landfills in poor developing countries where the toxic chemicals contained in the computer leak and contaminate the local population and environment.
3. Webapps are entirely on-line, there is no software packaging and CDs to use. Deploying software on-line leads to a dramatic drop of 88% in the carbon dioxide produced, saved by not producing DVDs, packaging and transit.
4. Webapps enable users who are apart to collaborate together, there is no need to print things on to bits of paper and send them around. Paper consumption has resulted in the destruction of 50% of this planets forests, the remaining forests are being replaced with vast fields of a single species of tree (the Eucalyptus) ideal for paper growing. Every year 5,000 people die because they have no access to clean water, a full glass of water is needed to produce every sheet of paper.
5. Because you don't need to print anything, you don't need a printer. Printers also contribute to e-Waste, and 10% more of them are thrown away each year. Most printer inks are made from oil, a non-renewable carbon intensive resource, the emissions from printers and their inks have been linked as a cause of cancer as the chemicals added to the ink are highly toxis, 25% of all ink cartridges end up in landfills every year.
6. Many people can use a webapp at any one time, and any one server can host many webapps, so we use less resources more often; think about the number of computers that could be reused if we didn't all need to run applications all of the time, we will also need less servers; this is the concept behind cloud computing.
7. Upgrades are delivered to the webapp on the server, the user doesn't have to do or purchase anything when a new version comes out, the don't have to worry about it being incompatible with their computer, or having to purchase additional equipment, or taking time to install new software. Centralised software management means less energy is consumed in maintenance.
8. Webapps support open protocols of exchange, so your data can be used with other data management programs over the web. This cannot be done with closed desktop software. Companies no longer need to compete and expend resources creating their own products, now software can work together to produce single unified results. The Open Web Foundation ensure the protection and promotion of these new open technologies.
9. Webapps are often hosted on servers in data centres that have their carbon dioxide offset, for example, our web host plant a new tree for every new server used as part of a Carbon Manager campaign.
10. Webapps often use sophisticated framework developed over a long period of good practice by the programming community, this means the software code runs efficiently, and manages its resources in an effective manor. Many of today's desktop computers have processors that are far more powerful than required, they are often in a idle state, efficient frameworks means the code will run on less powerful platforms, and the demand doesn't increase with the number of users as it does with traditional software. For example, see what happens when you try to run 100 copies of Microsoft Word at the same time, compared to having 100 people use a webapp at the same time; all on the same machine.

These are only a few of the reasons, if you can think of any others then write them down in a comment. Letopedia is a member of the The Climate Savers Computing Initiative, we pledge to only use IT equipment that is suitable for our needs, and equipment that is energy star compliant.

If you would like to learn more about the environment, climate change, and technologies, have a look at these resources:

1. The Home Project, a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand; you can watch this free on YouTube.
2. The Zeitgeist Movement, 2 films considering the human collectivity of technology, you can watch this for free on Google Video.
3. Action Carbone, tools and resources to reduce carbon emissions.