Digital Art - the Sustainable Choice?

JAMES MCGRATH, GHOST TREES, 2021. PHOTOGRAPHY: CLAIRE ARMSTRONG. 

A question we have been hearing a lot lately: is digital art sustainable? 

It’s a concern that is echoing around the art world. For the first time ever in 2022, issues around sustainability were among the top 10 concerns for art collectors surveyed in the Art Basel/UBS Art Market Report. This includes thinking about the most sustainable options when purchasing and managing art, reducing travel to art-related events, and preference for more environmentally conscious delivery methods when shipping art.

This shift in mindset suggests that the immaterial nature of digital art is far more sustainable. 

Traditional art creates huge amounts of waste. Think about the resources required to create, transport, install, and de-install artworks. A single work could travel thousands of kilometres by plane, truck, and car, wrapped in layers of plastic and paper. 

A digital artwork is a single immaterial file, that requires the click of a button to display anywhere, anytime. 

That’s not to say there aren’t environmental issues with digital art, especially as we move into web3.

Sustainability expert, Alice Audoin, has claimed that the carbon impact of the digital world will represent an estimated 9% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2025.

The carbon footprint of art minted on blockchain technology can be immense. A study by the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index found that the amount of electricity that mining Bitcoin consumed in one year is equal to that used to power Malaysia, Sweden or Ukraine. The processes of minting, bidding, cancelling, sales and transfer of ownership of NFTs all incur huge energy consumption.

There are huge efforts to shift the energy outputs of blockchain.

In 2021, artist Damien Hirst launched a collection of NFTs on the new Palm sidechain, which was far more energy-efficient than other currencies such as Ethereum and Bitcoin. 

Ethereum’s new merge this year upgraded its technology significantly to reduce its pollutionary impact by 99.5%. Since NFTs minted on Ethereum make up three quarters of the market, this will have a huge impact on artists and collectors looking for more sustainable crypto and NFT platforms. 

Carbon neutral token-currencies are increasingly gaining traction and credibility. A unique example is SolarCoin, which incentivises real-world solar energy production. 1 Solarcoin is created for every megawatt hour generated from solar technology; proven by users uploading documentation to prove energy generation.

Our world is not only becoming more digital, but also increasingly driven by sustainable systems and initiatives. 

Even on the simplest level, we can actively decide to use hardware that is environmentally friendly. For example, digital art should be displayed on low-wattage LED screens and run on alternative energy.  

We have the power to participate in knowing the facts and making decisions that reduce our ecological footprint.

Digital art manifests simultaneously as more sustainable and more destructive - if knowledge is power then the only way to move forward is through making decisions informed by truth and objectivity.