The AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator was introduced on March 1, 2022, allowing customers to precisely calculate the environmental impact of their AWS workloads. This innovative customer carbon footprint tool uses intuitive data visualizations to display historical carbon emissions, track trends as AWS usage evolves, and forecast future emissions.
The tool also estimates the carbon emissions customers have avoided by using AWS instead of traditional enterprise data centers. These insights are crucial as AWS aims to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, ahead of its 2030 target, and achieve net zero carbon emissions from designing data centers by 2040.
Key Features of the AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator
The AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator is an innovative tool designed to help customers understand and manage their carbon emissions effectively. This section provides a detailed overview of its key features, ensuring customers can fully leverage the tool to reduce carbon emissions and optimize their environmental impact.
Historical Carbon Emissions Data
The AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator offers a comprehensive view of historical carbon emissions. Customers can access this data through the AWS Billing console, where emissions are categorized by geographical location and specific AWS services such as Amazon EC2 and S3.
The tool ensures accuracy and consistency by adhering to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the global standard for carbon emissions data reporting. This historical data is crucial for customers aiming to track their carbon footprint over time and make informed decisions about their sustainability strategies.
Emission Trends and Forecasts
Customers can monitor changes in their carbon footprint over time and project future emissions. This feature is particularly useful as AWS continues its transition to 100% renewable energy by 2025. The forecasted emissions illustrate how customers’ carbon footprints will decrease as AWS achieves its renewable energy goals.
One of the standout features of the AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator is its ability to track and forecast emission trends. Customers can monitor changes in their carbon footprint over time, allowing them to see the impact of their AWS usage on their overall emissions. This feature is particularly valuable as AWS transitions to 100% renewable energy by 2025. The forecasted emissions provide a clear picture of how customers’ carbon footprints will decrease as AWS achieves its renewable energy goals, supporting customers in their journey towards net zero carbon emissions.
Emission Savings
The AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator highlights two primary categories of emission savings:
Infrastructure Efficiencies
Emission savings from AWS’s highly energy-efficient cloud infrastructure are a significant benefit. By using AWS instead of traditional enterprise data centers, customers can significantly reduce their carbon emissions. This reduction lower carbon concrete is due to the superior energy efficiency and operational efficiencies of AWS data centers.
Another critical area of emission savings is AWS’s procurement of renewable energy. As AWS continues to increase its use of clean energy sources, customers benefit from the reduced carbon emissions associated with their AWS workloads. These emission savings are particularly notable in regions where AWS has extensive renewable energy projects.
Utilizing the AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator for Sustainable Business Operations
Accessing the AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator
The AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator is designed to help users measure and manage their carbon emissions. This tool is available to all AWS accounts and provides insights into the environmental impact of AWS services.
Steps to Access the AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator:
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Sign In: Access your AWS Management Console.
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AWS Billing Console: Navigate to the AWS Billing and Cost Management console.
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Cost & Usage Reports: Go to the Cost & Usage Reports section.
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Select Time Frame: Under the Customer Carbon Footprint Tool section, choose the start and end month for your report.
By following these steps, customers can start leveraging the tool to gain insights into their carbon emissions and make informed decisions to reduce their environmental footprint.
IAM Permissions for Secure Access
To utilize the AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator, users need the specific IAM permission: sustainability. This ensures that only authorized personnel can access and manage the carbon emissions data, maintaining security and integrity.
For management accounts within AWS Organizations, the tool provides a consolidated view of emission data for all member accounts. This feature allows management accounts to track and report on the carbon emissions of their entire organization, while member accounts can view their specific data across all periods, irrespective of organizational changes.
Detailed Overview of the AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator
Carbon Emissions Summary
This section presents an estimate of AWS emissions and the savings achieved compared to an equivalent on-premises workload. The data is measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (MTCO2e), standardizing the impact of various greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
Emissions by Geography
Customers can view carbon emissions associated with each geographical region, summarized under high-level groupings like AMER (Americas) and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).
This section breaks down emissions by specific AWS services, such as EC2 and S3, helping customers understand the contributions of each service to their overall carbon footprint.
Emission Statistics and Trends
Users can analyze trends in their carbon emissions over time, with options to view data monthly, quarterly, or annually. This feature provides insights into how emissions change with resource deployment and with energy usage.
Path to 100% Renewable Energy
The AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator includes a graph showing how emissions will change as AWS moves towards its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2025. This visualization helps customers see the long-term benefits of AWS’s sustainability initiatives.
Understanding Carbon Emission Estimations
Greenhouse Gas Protocol Adherence
The AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator adheres to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO standards, ensuring reliable and accurate carbon footprint estimates. The tool includes Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions from electricity production) data.
Market-Based Method for Scope 2 Emissions
The Scope 2 portion of the estimate is calculated using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol market-based method, factoring in Amazon’s renewable energy projects on the grids where customer workloads are running. This method ensures that only purchased renewables on the applicable grid are included in the carbon footprint estimates.
Emission Savings from On-Premises Comparisons
To estimate emissions savings compared to on-premises equivalents systems, AWS uses data from independent research. Studies have shown that AWS can reduce a workload’s carbon footprint by up to 88% for US enterprise data centers and up to 96% for European data centers when fully powered by renewable energy by 2025.
Regional Variations in Emissions
Electricity grids vary in their carbon intensity based on the energy sources used. AWS Regions with high usage of renewable energy, such as those in EMEA, tend to have lower emissions, while regions with higher reliance of electricity consumed on carbon-intensive fuels have higher emissions.
Benefits of the AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator
Supporting Sustainability Goals
The AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator supports businesses in their sustainability journey by providing critical insights into carbon emissions. It enables users to track progress towards reducing their carbon footprint and achieving sustainability targets.
By offering detailed and accurate emissions data, the AWS Carbon Footprint Calculator enhances transparency. This allows customers to make informed decisions about their cloud usage and sustainability practices, ensuring they meet their environmental goals.
The tool is a key component in support of AWS’s broader strategy to achieve net zero carbon emissions. By helping customers understand and manage their carbon footprint, AWS reinforces its commitment to sustainability and supports global efforts to combat climate change.