Measuring greenhouse gas emissions in data centers: the environmental impact of cloud computing

Hessam Lavi Climatiq

This is our first post in a series of four articles dissecting how to measure greenhouse gas emissions from operating data centers and cloud services.

In public debate, emissions from cloud computing are often overlooked, despite having gained prominence due to reports about the massive CO₂ footprint of popular activities like watching Netflix or trading crypto assets.

• According to Paris-based nonprofit The Shift Project, emissions generated from watching 30 minutes of Netflix sum up to about 1.6 kg of CO₂, equal to driving almost 6 kilometers (roughly 4 miles) in your car. However, more recent research shows that number should be substantially lower by now.

• Bitcoin has a carbon footprint comparable to that of New Zealand, producing 36.95 MTof CO₂ annually, according to Digiconomist. According to the University of Cambridge, cryptocurrency uses more electricity than the entire annual energy consumption of the Netherlands. 

Global emissions from digital technology were placed at 3.7% of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2018. This places emissions from digital technology comfortably above emissions from commercial flights (about 2.4%) and many other activities necessary to fuel our global economy, even at 2018 levels.

Cloud computing providers must take action

Now more than ever, cloud computing providers should therefore take action. However, they often struggle to determine how to lower emissions, because credible emissions data covering their operations are unavailable, inconsistent, or lack transparency. 

This is particularly true for AWS but also other hyperscalers such as Azure and Google Cloud, who recently began sharing their cloud calculators with some clients—though not all. 

At Climatiq, we are seeing an increased interest from forward-thinking organizations striving to better understand emissions from their computing operations, such as Xero. 

To make things clearer, here we will start by explaining the main underlying drivers of computing emissions. Next, we explore tactics to help organizations lower their emissions.

Read more at Climatiq