Introduction
Managing your ageing email is about more than keeping your inbox tidy — it is also about saving money and reducing your environmental impact. With a few simple habits and smart settings, you can keep your email system running smoothly while helping datacenters use less energy.
Click open the headers below to find out how you and your staff can control email storage at a user level.
Why Email Storage Matters
Every email stored on a server uses energy. Whether it is a short message or a large attachment, it takes power to keep that data alive. Multiply that by millions of users, and the energy cost becomes significant.
Storage means power consumption
Datacenters consume a growing share of global electricity use. For instance, according to a 2024 report by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), US datacenters are expected to reach up to 12% of the national power supply by 2028 in the United States. Datacenter power consumptions is predicted to increase similarly in developed nations.
Best Practices for Managing Mailboxes
To keep your email system efficient, you and your staff can follow these tips:
- Set sensible quotas: Assign mailbox limits between 500MB and 2GB for regular users. Heavy users may need more, but limits help prevent overload.
- Monitor usage: Use cPanel’s “Disk Usage” tool to track mailbox sizes and spot accounts that need cleanup.
- Clean regularly: Delete old messages, empty spam and trash folders, and remove large attachments.
- Use filters and forwarders: Set up rules to manage incoming mail and forward messages to reduce clutter.
- Send links: sending links to files in OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive avoids file duplication, reduces mailbox size, and relieves network congestion.
User-level vs organizational level management
These tips above are aimed at user level management. GDPR-compliant businesses use archiving and “rules-based” policies to control email storage. Also, GDPR-compliant businesses exercise controls to prevent indiscriminate or malicious email deletion. So, even if you are a small organization, you should have a written policy to set out management procedures.
Email archiving
Microsoft 365 excels at archiving an rules-based managment and it is the email service of choice for “mailflow”, archving, and advanced functions like litigation locks. cPanel web servers can still achieve good housekeeping results. Admins can manage email accounts centrally. Also, users can:
- Manually move old emails to archive folders.
- Use an email client like Outlook or Thunderbird to automate archiving.
- Admins and ComStat.uk can provide custom scripts or cron jobs to archive or delete old emails based on age.
If you are a cPanel web server admin, you can refer to this article for more information about your cPanel email service.
Small Habits, Big Impact
Individual users can make a real difference by:
- Unsubscribing from unwanted newsletters and mailing lists.
- Monitoring spam and deleting it promptly.
- Avoiding digital hoarding—don’t keep every email forever.
Regular attention like this reduce the load on servers, cuts energy use, and helps data centers operate more sustainably.
Summary
Managing email storage is more than just good housekeeping — it is a step toward better performance, lower costs, and a greener internet. By setting limits, cleaning up regularly, and adopting smart habits, you can do your part to keep your inbox—and the planet—healthy.
About ComStat.uk: Internet Service Provider Comstat provides IT support, web hosting, and media services including website design, Microsoft 365 setup, and audio/video production, serving businesses across Denbighshire, North Wales and Wirral from Ruthin, and Lancashire and the Northwest from Bolton.
