Thank You for Showing Up — Digitally and Deliberately

Digital Cleanup Day 2026 took place on 21 March. And the world — quietly, collectively — got to work.

We live in an age of accumulation. Not just of things, but of data. Every day, we generate emails we never re-read, upload files we never revisit, store photos we will likely never look at again, and back up documents that should have been deleted years ago. It all sits there — invisible, weightless to the touch, but far from consequence-free.

Digital storage consumes energy. Data centres run around the clock to keep our forgotten files alive. The global digital sector is responsible for roughly 2–4% of global greenhouse gas emissions — comparable to the aviation industry. Most people are genuinely surprised to learn this. That surprise is exactly why Digital Cleanup Day exists.

On 21 March, individuals, teams, organisations, universities, and institutions across the world paused and looked honestly at their digital spaces. They deleted what no longer needed to exist. They made room — in their devices, on their servers, and perhaps more importantly, in their thinking about what digital responsibility actually means.

To every single person who participated: thank you. What you did matters — not only because of the gigabytes cleared, but because of the question you asked yourself by doing it: do I really need to keep this? That question, asked regularly and honestly, is where lasting change begins.

Still working through your cleanup? Please keep going — and when you are done, register your results at digitalcleanupday.org. Every gigabyte you report contributes to the global total, and that total is the evidence we use to make the case — to governments, institutions, and organisations — that digital sustainability is not optional.

A sincere thank you to all our partners, whose support made this year's Digital Cleanup Day possible. Your reach, your networks, and your willingness to stand behind this cause helped us go further than we could have gone alone.

A special thank you belongs to M&C Saatchi (UK), our creative partner for Digital Cleanup Day 2026. Their involvement was exceptional — not just in what they delivered, but in how genuinely they believed in the cause. Read the full article on M&C Saatchi’s #NotOnMyPhone campaign to learn more.

What’s this year’s impact? Once the final submissions are in, we’ll deliver the numbers within the month! 

Digital Cleanup Day returns on the third Saturday of March 2027. Until then, the work continues — one decision at a time, one deleted file at a time, one organisation choosing to store only what it truly needs. Small choices, made by enough people, change the world.

Thank you for being part of this one.