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Imagine a garbage collector, but for your digital junk. Vijay Karia joins Climate Curious to share his solution for tackling the invisible but growing problem of digital waste –a platform designed to help organisations identify and eliminate unnecessary digital storage, cutting carbon emissions in the process. What’s even better? Profits from cleaning up the cloud are reinvested back into Canopy for Humanity, a nonprofit supporting Indigenous communities in the Amazon. Recorded live at TED 2025 in conversation with co-host Maryam Pasha.

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Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston

00:00 Introduction
00:09 The impact of digital waste on climate
01:04 Meet Vijay Karia and Opticloud
01:56 Understanding digital waste
03:52 The role of AI in digital sanitation
04:23 Vijay Karia’s background and vision
06:00 Supporting Indigenous Communities
09:44 Success stories and future plans
11:39 Conclusion

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:00:00] Ben Hurst: Welcome to Climate Quickies, bite-sized nuggets of Climate Goodness. From our TEDx London experts in under 10 minutes

[00:00:09] The impact of digital waste on climate

[00:00:09] Maryam Pasha: in this week’s climate, curious, we’re cleaning up the cloud, all the excess digital [00:00:15] storage, especially with big companies. And increased AI usage is having a real impact on the climate.

[00:00:20] Maryam Pasha: And our guest this week, Vijay Karia, has made it his work to help eliminate the excess ones and zeros with his company. Opticloud, that’s good news for [00:00:30] companies going to save money on storage, and it’s good news for the rest of us with a reduced impact on the environment. Not to mention Opticloud is reinvesting back into indigenous communities in the Amazon.

[00:00:41] Maryam Pasha: Now, are we talking really big numbers here? BJ tells us his work with [00:00:45] companies to save them millions of dollars whilst cutting their emissions. 30%. On how tackling digital clutter could play a vital role in climate action. Let’s go over to VJ now and remember, stay curious.[00:01:00]

[00:01:04] Meet Vijay Karia and Opticloud

[00:01:04] Maryam Pasha: So we’re joined today by Vijay Ka, co-founder and CEO of to Cloud. Now, I’m not gonna tell you what that is ’cause I want Vij. I want you to tell our listeners what that is and what is [00:01:15] this topic that you’re working on that’s. We haven’t covered yet.

[00:01:18] Vijay Karia: So we created a platform to help the world create digital sanitation.

[00:01:23] Vijay Karia: And in the physical world, we have waste management and the concept of recycling. People know that [00:01:30] the ocean is dirty, people know the landfills, and we need to be better about how we reuse physical materials, what people don’t think of as how much virtual waste there is. We built a platform to eliminate the digital waste of the world [00:01:45] and recycle it into good.

[00:01:46] Vijay Karia: So we recycle that into efforts in the Amazon and protecting indigenous communities.

[00:01:52] Maryam Pasha: Okay, so many questions from what you’ve just said.

[00:01:56] Understanding digital waste

[00:01:56] Maryam Pasha: Digital waste. I have to admit, this is not really something I’ve thought of. What is digital waste?

[00:02:03] Vijay Karia: Yep. So digital waste. Think of, um, everyone has an iPhone. Everyone has a computer.

[00:02:10] Vijay Karia: Businesses have servers that run in the cloud. We’ve been marketed that the cloud is [00:02:15] infinite space and doesn’t come at a cost. And, you know, everyone knows that everything comes at a cost and the cost really is energy. And um, examples would be, think of how many extra emails you have [00:02:30] that you don’t need.

[00:02:30] Vijay Karia: Think of the junk emails in your inbox. Think of duplicate photos on your phone. Think of oversized computers and data servers and data centers that, you know, people don’t go back and. Realize how much they’re using [00:02:45] and how much should they use. It’s all wasted energy.

[00:02:48] Maryam Pasha: This is really interesting actually, when I look at my, um, partner’s inbox, because he doesn’t delete.

[00:02:55] Maryam Pasha: Anything, like all the drunk mail, all that, [00:03:00] it’s horrific for me. I look at it and I’m like, but that is garbage. Like, why are you not throwing it away? And he just keeps all of it.

[00:03:06] Vijay Karia: He’s not alone. He’s not alone. That’s all I can say is I was with world leaders at COP 29 and when I [00:03:15] brought this up, you know, I really just said, you know who in the audience has.

[00:03:21] Vijay Karia: At multiple email addresses who has spam and junk in their inbox, you know, and really just like everyone’s. Email [00:03:30] inboxes, businesses, governments are all suffering and drowning in digital waste. And it’s a digital ocean now. Uh, there’s 8 billion people on earth, 200 billion connected devices.

[00:03:41] Maryam Pasha: Wow.

[00:03:42] Vijay Karia: And we need, there’s 25 times [00:03:45] more devices that are connected to the internet than humans.

[00:03:48] Vijay Karia: And now we’re talking about building 10 billion robots.

[00:03:52] The role of AI in digital sanitation

[00:03:52] Vijay Karia: The advancement of AI is just accelerating all of these. This, this problem of digital waste. Yes.

[00:03:58] Maryam Pasha: Yes.

[00:03:59] Vijay Karia: And [00:04:00] really we’re thinking about doing something about it to solve that problem, but also not just solve it. This is waste today. This doesn’t do anything for anybody.

[00:04:11] Vijay Karia: And people get charged a lot of money for it. Right. So, [00:04:15] and we have limited energy supplies. Those ener energy doesn’t. Come free of cost. It also comes at the harm for the planet.

[00:04:23] Vijay Karia’s background and vision

[00:04:23] Maryam Pasha: I wanna ask you a bit about, oh, I would ask you so many things, but before we get to that, I’m really curious as to what [00:04:30] your background is that got you to working on this.

[00:04:34] Vijay Karia: So, I mean, I’ve been in computer science for 20 years. Um, before that I was a professional tennis player.

[00:04:40] Maryam Pasha: Were you really?

[00:04:41] Vijay Karia: Yeah. They

[00:04:42] Maryam Pasha: did not know

[00:04:42] Vijay Karia: that about you. So, um. You know, but I’ve been in [00:04:45] tech for 20 years and when I saw the large language models came out, I mean, it’s probably the first time since mobile that we’ve seen a technology that could just revolutionize, and in a way this is gonna [00:05:00] revolutionize every industry all at the same time.

[00:05:03] Vijay Karia: And so I was thinking to myself, you know, put in the hands of people that use this for good. It’s, it’s one of the best forces on earth. Uh, people that use it for [00:05:15] bad. It’s one of the worst forces on earth. And I was really just trying to come up with a way of what is the best way I can use this technology for the health of the planet and for the good of society?

[00:05:28] Vijay Karia: And I landed [00:05:30] on this concept that the physical world has waste management and the virtual world doesn’t. And I was like, why doesn’t it? It’s ’cause it’s a pain to clean all of this stuff up. And AI agents could be digital garbage men [00:05:45] and that’s, and no one will feel bad about it. Most time because it’s doing the work that they don’t want to do and it’ll save them a lot of money.

[00:05:54] Vijay Karia: And then in my head I was like, okay, well recycling doesn’t exist in the virtual world. What is the best use for [00:06:00] recycling?

[00:06:00] Supporting Indigenous Communities

[00:06:00] Vijay Karia: And I landed on the fact that the Amazon is the lungs of the planet, right? And without the Amazon. Which is very much in trouble right now. We’re in deep trouble for the planet and the indigenous people that live there are the guardians of that forest and no one is helping them.

[00:06:20] Vijay Karia: And these are my people, my, my mother’s from Ecuador and I have a deep connection to those tribes, um, working directly with them [00:06:30] and. It’s really this, it’s the concept of one man’s waste is another man’s treasure. Mm-hmm. And really my thought is if we could eliminate this waste and reinvest it into people right.[00:06:45]

[00:06:45] Vijay Karia: And these are millions of people that are suffering losing their homes. And if we lose those people, those are the people that are actually doing the most for the planet. They’re make up 5% of the population and [00:07:00] protect 80% of the biodiversity on Earth.

[00:07:02] Maryam Pasha: It, it’s. Every time I hear that number, every time I hear that statistic, it, it blows my mind.

[00:07:07] Maryam Pasha: And I guess I’m curious to know how, how does that side work? Like of this model that you work that you have, how does it [00:07:15] help those communities?

[00:07:16] Vijay Karia: Yeah. So what we do, so on a good year, when I started coming up with this, you know, I, I started learning more about the indigenous communities and how, who’s helping them today and what they’re doing today, and really [00:07:30] that world centers around nonprofits.

[00:07:32] Vijay Karia: And when I spoke to some of the leading nonprofits in the space that help these communities, I ask them on a great year, how much are you raising? How much are you getting to these communities to feed [00:07:45] them, support them, protect them, help them protect their forests, help them make those forests thrive.

[00:07:52] Vijay Karia: And on a good year, it’s about $10 million. And immediately I was thinking there’s no [00:08:00] possible way we have a shot to, to really make. The big difference that we need to with $10 million, and so I thought there needed to be a new business model. One that where a private company could generate [00:08:15] enough revenue.

[00:08:16] Vijay Karia: And feed in some of this revenue and savings that we generate for companies into a nonprofit. So we created a nonprofit Canopy for Humanity, and we’re [00:08:30] driving savings from businesses and taking a portion of those savings. And feeding it back into this nonprofit that works directly with the indigenous communities.

[00:08:39] Vijay Karia: An example of a project that we’re working on even right now, is a caravan program [00:08:45] with the tribe as tribes in Parra, where Cop 30 is gonna be hosted, um, later in November. And this project is gonna enable a million indigenous. [00:09:00] Tribes, members of tribes to actually show up and be present.

[00:09:06] Maryam Pasha: That’s incredible.

[00:09:07] Maryam Pasha: That’s incredible.

[00:09:09] Vijay Karia: Yeah,

[00:09:09] Maryam Pasha: because this is one of the things I’ve actually heard about with the cops is that the, even the, [00:09:15] even the indigenous communities, the island, small island nations, et cetera, they don’t have the resources to send large delegations Exactly. To represent. Our in because they’re always representing our interests.

[00:09:27] Maryam Pasha: You know, they’re never representing just their [00:09:30] own interests, and yet the guys who are representing, and there’s always guys who are representing just their own interests have. Uh, almost unlimited funds to send as many people as they can. So that’s, that’s very cool. I’m very excited to hear about where you get to with this project.

[00:09:44] Success stories and future plans

[00:09:44] Maryam Pasha: I wanna ask [00:09:45] you about the success you’ve had so far on this project. Like, give me some numbers.

[00:09:49] Vijay Karia: Yeah. So we’ve already saved a company a million dollars and lowered their emissions by 30%.

[00:09:56] Maryam Pasha: No way. No way. Yeah.

[00:09:57] Vijay Karia: Like

[00:09:58] Maryam Pasha: 30%.

[00:09:59] Vijay Karia: 30%. [00:10:00] Come on. That’s how much waste is out there. I mean, that’s.

[00:10:02] Maryam Pasha: So they, they must have been amazed and pissed off at the same time.

[00:10:06] Maryam Pasha: At

[00:10:06] Vijay Karia: the end of the day, it’s just a whole world of misaligned incentives. So, you know, CEOs don’t want their business to go down. [00:10:15] So when they go to their CTOs, when they go to their development teams, they say, please make sure my systems never go down. And IT teams, they don’t want to be called in over the weekend, late at night if the system goes [00:10:30] down.

[00:10:30] Vijay Karia: So what do they do? They oversize everything. They never have time to go back and analyze the data because the data sets are so large of what did I actually use? What, what? You know how

[00:10:44] Maryam Pasha: even on a [00:10:45] personal level, yeah. You buy your cloud storage from Google and you never actually think, is this right for me?

[00:10:50] Vijay Karia: Exactly. And so, but it’s those misaligned incentives that create this massive. Digital ocean of waste. [00:11:00] And um, I mean

[00:11:01] Maryam Pasha: there, do we have a sense of size? Like,

[00:11:04] Vijay Karia: I mean, we’re probably one of the first measurement systems to actually measure the energy usage of the cloud and emissions of the cloud and the waste of the cloud.

[00:11:13] Maryam Pasha: You’re talking things like [00:11:15] Apple iCloud, Google Cloud, the Amazon servers. So

[00:11:18] Vijay Karia: starting, yeah, we’re talking, um, Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, Kubernetes. But when I said that we’re [00:11:30] going after digital sanitation, it will also be iCloud and others.

[00:11:34] Maryam Pasha: Okay, great. Got it. Got it. So

[00:11:35] Vijay Karia: that’s really where our direction of our company is headed in.

[00:11:39] Maryam Pasha: Incredible.

[00:11:39] Conclusion

[00:11:39] Maryam Pasha: Thank you so much for sharing this with us and this idea, and I’m really excited to. Come back to Ted and talk to you again and get my own little digital AI garbage, man. Thanks for Jake.

[00:11:50] Ben Hurst: Thank you guys. Thanks for listening to this quickie.

[00:11:53] Maryam Pasha: This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDxLondon.

[00:11:58] Maryam Pasha: Until next time,

[00:11:59] Ben Hurst: stay [00:12:00] curious.