Carbon footprint calculator for your screens

Before talking about reductions, you need an order of magnitude. The calculator below gives you one in four steps, with no sign-up: manufacturing, shipping, electricity use and end of life. The rest of this page explains what actually brings the number down.

142 modelsof screens on file
61 countrieselectricity mixes
4 stagesmanufacturing → end of life

THE CALCULATOR

What is the footprint of your screens?

Pick your screen model, describe how it is used, and you get the breakdown stage by stage. Nothing is stored and no sign-up is required.

1Equipment
2Usage
3Options
4Results

Configure your equipment

★
Partner models
Dynascan, Philips, Samsung...
▢
Generic size
Pick a screen size
✎
Custom
Enter your own specifications
Player included (25W)

Define how it is used

1h12h24h
1182365
1 year1020 years

Advanced options

Refine your estimate with additional parameters (optional).

Comparison with printed posters ▼
Transport & logistics ▼
Accessories & mounts ▼

Your carbon footprint

🍃
0
kg CO2e / year
Total annual impact
📈
0
kg CO2e
Impact over the lifespan
💻
0
kg CO2e / year
Per screen per year

Breakdown by life-cycle stage

Cumulative total (kg CO2e)

Over one year, that is equivalent to...

✈️
0
return flight(s) Paris - Marseille
🚗
0
km by petrol car
🌳
0
tree(s) to offset it
📱
0
smartphone charge(s)

Digital signage vs. paper

EMITY digital signage
0 kg CO2e/year
VS
Printed paper posters
0 kg CO2e/year
Emissions breakdown by item ▼
Life-cycle stage Detail Annual (kg CO2e) Share
Methodology & sources ▼
This calculator uses a simplified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, in line with the "Digital Services" PCR. Emission factors come from ADEME’s Base Empreinte and from Carbon Footprint Ltd. The stages covered span the whole life cycle: raw material extraction, supply, manufacturing and assembly, distribution, energy consumed in operation, and end-of-life treatment (collection, sorting, recycling, recovery). Uncertainty on the emission factors is around 50%.

Browse ADEME’s Base Empreinte

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Simplified LCA methodology - Source: ADEME Base Empreinte • emity.io

METHOD

How to read this result — and what it does not say

A tool that does not state its scope is not worth much. Here is ours.

  • ✓Four stages, not just one. Manufacturing of the screen and its accessories, distribution (sea freight then road), electricity while it runs, and end of life. That is what a simplified life cycle assessment covers.
  • ✓Why manufacturing weighs so much. It is paid once, but it is already spent before the screen is first switched on. That is why the calculator spreads it over the lifespan you enter: extending that lifespan lowers the annual figure without changing anything else. Keeping a screen in service beats replacing it.
  • ✓Why end of life can be negative. Recycling avoids extracting new materials. The calculator therefore uses a net balance: emissions from treatment minus emissions avoided. A negative line is not a display bug.
  • ✓The electricity mix changes everything. The same screen does not emit the same amount depending on where it runs. The factor used for France is 0.0569 kgCO₂e/kWh, one of the lowest in Europe; reference values come from ADEME’s Base Empreinte.
  • ✓What is left out. The network that delivers your content, the servers, and the production of the content itself. Those are real but small next to the hardware and the power it draws.
  • ✓This is not a regulatory inventory. A GHG inventory or CSRD reporting require a full methodology across the three scopes of the GHG Protocol, data collected item by item and often external verification. This calculator covers your screens; it does not replace an inventory.

REDUCING

What actually brings the number down

Six levers, from the most immediate to the most structural.

Automatic switch-off

The fastest lever, and it is built into the software by default: screens turn off at night, at weekends and outside opening hours. Lower the hours per day in the calculator above and the gap shows up immediately.

Adjusting brightness

A screen set to maximum draws noticeably more than one matched to the ambient light. The adjustment is made once, at installation.

Digital ink where the image barely changes

An E-PAPER screen draws nothing as long as the display does not change, and runs up to five years on a charge. For a price label or door signage, it is the most frugal choice.

A 5 W player, or no player at all

Our box is a 5 W micro-PC, and we only add it when the screen cannot run the application itself. One less device is one less thing drawing power.

Keeping the screens you already have

This is the lever the calculator makes visible: extend the lifespan and the annual figure drops, because manufacturing is spread over more years. Our software works with every manufacturer, and an older screen becomes usable again with our player.

Fewer screens, better placed

The lever nobody talks about. Two well-placed screens beat six badly placed ones — and cost less to buy and to run.

GETTING ORIENTED

Which tool for which need

Our calculator covers one scope: your screens. For the rest, here is honestly where to look.

Your need The right tool Cost Time Worth knowing
A first look at your organisation A freemium carbon tool Freemium ~30 min Fine as long as no legal obligation applies.
A regulatory inventory or CSRD report A certified tool, or a consultancy Paid Several days Required as soon as the report has to stand up to scrutiny.
The footprint of your screens The calculator on this page Free ~2 min One scope only, but right now and with no sign-up.

We are not trying to replace a full carbon accounting tool. We answer one question those tools rarely cover in any detail: what does a fleet of screens actually cost the climate?

WHAT NEXT

Once you know the figure, make it visible

This is where a screen earns its place in the effort: it gets the data out of the spreadsheet.

In the reception area

The site’s energy figure, updated on its own. Visitors and staff see it as they walk in — that is what makes the subject concrete.

In open space and on the shop floor

This quarter’s targets and how far along they are. A figure on a screen changes habits more than a report nobody opens.

In meeting rooms

Your Power BI or Google Sheets indicators pushed automatically through E-MANAGER, with no re-typing and no manual export.

E-MANAGER pushes your indicators to your screens from the sources you already use. Our own commitments are set out on our CSR policy page.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What people ask us about the calculation

You add up four stages: manufacturing of the screen and its accessories, distribution from the factory, the electricity it draws while running, and its end of life. Then you spread the one-off stages over the screen’s lifespan. That is what the calculator above does — you only need to pick your model.

The emission factors come from ADEME’s Base Empreinte: manufacturing emissions estimated by regression on the screen diagonal, sea and road freight factors, a net end-of-life balance, and the electricity emission factor for 61 countries (0.0569 kgCO₂e/kWh for France). The specifications of the 142 screen models on file (weight, power draw, lifespan) come from manufacturer datasheets. And if your screen is not on the list, you can enter its own specifications.

No, and it is not meant to. A regulatory GHG inventory or CSRD reporting assume a full methodology across the three scopes of the GHG Protocol, data collected item by item and, often, external verification. This calculator covers one scope — your screens — straight away. It is a starting point, not a regulatory deliverable.

Because recycling a screen avoids extracting and processing new materials. The calculator uses the net balance: emissions from treatment minus emissions avoided. For a screen that balance is negative. It is not a display bug, and it does not mean end of life is good for the climate — only that it recovers part of what manufacturing cost.

No. A screen draws power, it had to be manufactured and it will have to be recycled. The outcome depends on what the display replaces: swapping a screen for posters reprinted every week is nothing like adding a screen where there was none. That is why we give you a tool rather than a percentage.

Yes, and by a lot. The same screen running in France, Germany or Poland does not carry the same emissions, because the carbon intensity of a kWh differs by more than a factor of ten across the 61 countries in the list. If you run screens in several countries, calculate them separately.

No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser: none of your entries is sent anywhere, nothing is stored and no sign-up is required. You can close the page and nothing will be left.

Yes, and that is exactly what E-MANAGER does: it pushes your dashboards (Power BI, Google Sheets, business databases) to your screens and keeps them up to date automatically. Ask for a demonstration to see it running on your own data.

You have the figure. Now make it visible.

Try E-MANAGER for three months and show your indicators on your screens: the full Excellence plan, up to three screens, no commitment.