From PDFs to AI: The Digital Carbon Footprint Companies Are Ignoring

A new survey reveals that most employees and companies have no policies or awareness around the environmental cost of cloud storage and AI tool usage.

Stéphane TurquayPublished: June 16, 2026

Every time a file gets saved, a query gets sent to an AI tool, or a document sits untouched in cloud storage, energy is being consumed, and most employees have no idea. Smallpdf surveyed 1,000 full-time U.S. employees to understand how aware workers and companies are about the carbon impact of their digital habits, from bloated file storage to daily AI tool usage.

Key takeaways

4 out of 5 employees weren't fully aware that storing large digital files in the cloud has a measurable carbon footprint.
75% of employees say their company has no policy addressing the energy or carbon impact of employee AI tool usage.
31% of employees were unaware that each AI query consumes significantly more energy than a standard Google search.
Nearly 1 in 3 employees (32%) say IT or technology teams should be responsible for reducing digital waste.
45% of companies have never conducted a digital waste audit.
Just over 1 in 10 (13%) employees said their company tracks the carbon footprint of software tools or digital workflows

The Carbon Audit Companies Are Missing

Many companies track energy use in their offices and measure supply chain emissions, but a growing source of environmental impact is hiding in plain sight: the files, folders, and cloud infrastructure that power everyday work. Research has shown the high ecological costs of data storage and the cloud, yet many employees remain unaware that this cost exists.

The majority of employees (67%) agreed that reducing digital waste should be part of corporate sustainability efforts, signaling a disconnect between what workers believe and what companies are actually doing.

Awareness is a big part of the problem. Overall, 80% of employees were not fully aware that storing large digital files in the cloud carries a carbon footprint. When asked who should take responsibility for reducing digital waste, the largest share of employees (36%) said it should be a shared responsibility across everyone, while 32% pointed to IT or technology teams specifically.

The top barrier to reducing a company's digital carbon footprint was simply a lack of awareness, cited by 39% of employees. Beyond that, a third of employees (33%) said there is no financial incentive or regulatory pressure to change, and 29% said leadership does not see it as a real issue. Another 28% ranked it as too low a priority compared to other sustainability efforts.

AI tools have become a fixture of the modern workday, but their environmental cost is largely going unexamined by both the employees using them and the companies enabling their use.

Three-quarters of employees (75%) said their company has no policy addressing the energy or carbon impact of AI tool usage at work, even as 73% reported using AI tools regularly or sometimes during their workday. Among employees who did think about the environmental cost, 54% said they personally care about the carbon impact of the AI tools they use, while 28% said they had never thought about it.

Nearly a third of employees (31%) were unaware before taking this survey that each AI query consumes significantly more energy than a standard Google search, a gap researchers have estimated at roughly five times the electricity. And while more than half of individual employees expressed personal concern, only 14% said their company cares about the carbon impact of AI tool usage in the workplace.

Even companies that do have sustainability programs in place are largely leaving digital operations out of the picture, treating cloud infrastructure and digital workflows as separate from their environmental responsibilities.

Nearly half of companies (45%) have never conducted a digital waste audit reviewing unused files, redundant backups, or oversized documents. Only 13% of employees said their company tracks the carbon footprint of software tools or digital workflows, while 46% said their company does not do this at all.

The picture is similarly incomplete when it comes to formal sustainability reporting. Nearly one-quarter of employees (24%) said their company has no formal sustainability reporting. Among the sustainability goals that companies do track, energy use in offices topped the list at 42%, while digital waste, including unused files and redundant data, ranked last at just 15%. This trailed even employee commuting (20%) and supply chain emissions (21%).

Looking ahead, 24% of employees said their company is somewhat or very likely to act on digital carbon in the next 12 months, suggesting that meaningful change may still be a long way off for most organizations.

What the Numbers Are Telling Us

Digital sustainability is still treated as someone else's problem, or not a problem at all. Companies that are serious about reducing their environmental impact will need to bring their digital operations, cloud storage, file management, and AI tool usage into the same conversation as office energy use and supply chain emissions. Starting with a digital waste audit, establishing clear policies around file storage and AI usage, and building awareness among employees are all practical first steps that any team can take.

Methodology

Smallpdf surveyed 1,000 U.S. full-time employees in March of 2026. Respondents were 52% men and 47% women. By generation, 58% were millennials, 26% were Gen X, and 13% were Gen Z. Industries represented include technology/software (17%), healthcare/pharmaceuticals (14%), education (12%), finance/banking/insurance (10%), government/public sector (8%), manufacturing (7%), and retail/e-commerce (6%), among others.

About Smallpdf

Smallpdf is a leading online document platform trusted by millions of users worldwide to simplify how they work with PDFs and digital files. From compressing and converting documents to signing and editing them, Smallpdf offers a full suite of tools designed to help individuals and businesses work more efficiently while keeping file sizes lean and manageable. As digital carbon footprints come under increasing scrutiny, tools that reduce unnecessary storage and streamline document workflows are becoming an important part of a smarter, more sustainable workday.

Fair Use Statement

The data and findings in this article are intended for noncommercial use only. If you share or reference this content, please provide a link back to the original study and an attribution to Smallpdf.

How File Errors Derail Workflows and Cost Businesses

Why Visual Receipts Are Ruining Our Digital Memory

Stéphane Turquay

Principal Product Manager at Smallpdf

More by this author