Reducing Cloud Carbon Footprint: Strategies for Businesses.

“Sustainability is a global challenge and we have to solve it at scale…We’re trying to solve global challenges.”

— Chris Blood, AWS Sustainability Leader

Every click, every transaction, every digital process your enterprise runs contributes to a rapidly expanding environmental challenge. Data centers now consume up to 1.5% of global electricity, with the cloud’s carbon footprint growing 9% year over year. Nowadays, enterprises face pressure from investors, regulators, and customers to demonstrate environmental responsibility. So reducing cloud carbon footprint is not just an environmental imperative, it is a business-critical strategy. In this blog, we are going to explore what you can do to reduce your cloud carbon footprint.

Key Takeaways

• Choosing renewable energy-powered data centers can reduce emissions by up to 90% compared to fossil fuel-powered alternatives.
• You can use tools like the Cloud Carbon Footprint platform and provider dashboards to track emissions before implementing reduction strategies effectively.
• High-quality carbon offsets for unavoidable emissions help achieve net-zero targets.
• Multi-cloud and hybrid approaches allow workloads to run in the most energy-efficient environments.
• Selecting cloud regions with lower carbon intensity based on local energy grids dramatically reduces your overall footprint.

What is a Cloud Carbon Footprint?

A cloud carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions due to the use of cloud services. Besides that, consumption of data center electricity, cooling systems and network infrastructure also come under it. The cloud carbon footprint also includes embodied emissions from hardware manufacturing and end-of-life disposal. Every time your team spins up a virtual machine, it results in carbon emissions.

Why Should Enterprises Care?

If you are not a cloud service provider, then why should you care about it? Yes, there is regulatory compliance, but there are other aspects for you, such as:

• Cost Savings: Efficient cloud usage means lower operational costs.
• Brand Reputation: Investors are favoring companies with demonstrable sustainability commitments.
• Risk Mitigation: You can follow emissions regulations for risk mitigation purposes in your industry.
• Competitive Advantage: Early adopters can differentiate themselves in the industry.

For example, Stripe has made sustainability a core part of its brand, partnering with Watershed to track and reduce its cloud emissions. It is a great move towards eco-friendly practices.

Types of Cloud Carbon Emissions

How Can Businesses Measure and Monitor Their Cloud Carbon Emissions Effectively?

Monitoring the cloud carbon emission is the first step for any reduction strategy. However, how do you accurately track your cloud carbon emissions? You can use the open-source Cloud Carbon Footprint platform (integrates with AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) for frequent visibility (updated on a daily basis) into energy use. Google Cloud’s Carbon Footprint dashboard is another example. It allows you to visualize trends and identify hotspots for optimization.

“Building a sustainable business depends on a new way of looking at everything you do.”

— Justin Keeble, Managing Director for Global Sustainability, Google Cloud

10 Ways to Reduce Your Enterprise Cloud Carbon Footprint

Due to the increasing pressure of digital transformation, you need to rely more on cloud services. However, cloud data centers alone consume about 1-1.5% of the world’s electricity, a figure expected to double by 2030! So how can you unlock environmental benefits? You can follow these ten strategies that help you reduce your cloud carbon footprint while maintaining the business benefits:

1. Choose Renewable or Carbon-Neutral Data Centers

First step, that we have already discussed is you need to migrate workloads to renewable energy powered data centers. Choose a provider, who offers cloud services powered by renewable energy such as solar, wind, or hydro. For example, AWS uses renewable energy and also deploys liquid cooling systems. Google Cloud service is also doing the same. In this way, you not only cut the expenses but also meet the net-zero target.

2. Optimize Workloads and Resource Allocation

Are you paying for idle resources? You can implement auto-scaling and load balancing for better resource allocation. Capital One adopted a cloud optimization strategy that included automated scaling and rightsizing of workloads. The result? A 27% reduction in cloud-related energy consumption while maintaining high performance.

3. Implement Server Virtualization and Consolidation

Server virtualization is another method that we have discussed. It is a proven energy saver. Brands like Dell Technologies consolidated their global data centers using virtualization. It reduces the physical server count by 40% and slashes energy use by 30%. As a result, Dell also reported lower operational costs due to consolidation.

4. Reduce Data Redundancy and Optimize Storage

Do you store more data than you actually need? It can be a hidden energy drain! You should avoid storing rarely accessed data in high-performance storage tiers. You can delete obsolete data and choose storage tier appropriately to cut carbon footprint emissions. You can follow the strategy of Dropbox. They migrate from multiple cloud providers to their own optimized infrastructure. It helps them achieve a drop in cloud energy consumption.

5. Select Cloud Regions with Lower Carbon Intensity

Have you considered how the geographic location of your cloud workloads influences your carbon footprint? Take Netflix, for example. As a global streaming giant, Netflix operates across multiple AWS regions to serve its 280 million members worldwide. Their cloud architecture is designed to dynamically shift workloads and traffic between AWS regions. With the help of AWS’s global infrastructure, Netflix routes user requests to regions where the energy mix is cleaner.

6. Adopt Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Approaches

Are you locked into a single cloud provider? It is good for small, mid size businesses. However, if you have large datasets, you can choose hybrid or multi-cloud strategies. It brings more flexibility to run workloads in the most energy-efficient environments. BMW Group adopted a hybrid cloud model to distribute workloads between on-premises data centers (optimized for energy efficiency) and public clouds. As a large enterprise, you can also adapt this strategy to balance performance and sustainability.

7. Embrace Circular Economy and Responsible Hardware Lifecycle Management

However, cloud sustainability is not only about energy consumption! You need to consider other aspects like outdated servers and IT hardware. Microsoft’s Asset Recovery Service is a leading example in this case. They recycle decommissioned hardware and recover rare earth metals. Interestingly, in Denmark, Microsoft’s data center heat is redirected to warm 6,000 homes. In this way, they turn waste into a community resource.

8. Utilize Green Software Engineering

Minimizing energy use (carbon emission) is the aim of green software engineering. You can use tools like JoularJX, PowerAPI, and Cloud Carbon Footprint to measure the energy consumption of the software. Standards such as the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) and Green Software Measurement Model (GSMM) provide frameworks for benchmarking.

For example, Microsoft has integrated carbon-aware SDKs to schedule compute-intensive tasks when renewable energy is most available. As a result, it reduces emissions but improves the performance.

9. Collaborate with Suppliers

Collaborating with suppliers ensures that sustainability goals extend across the entire value chain. A 2021 IBM survey found that 95% of IT professionals said their companies would pay an average premium of 6% for products or services from ESG-committed suppliers. You can work with vendors who for instance commit using 100% renewable energy practices.

In this way, you can encourage your industry leaders to reduce the cloud carbon impacts. Major corporations like Unilever and Walmart require suppliers to report (or reduce) emissions. Such collaboration not only helps meet regulations but also builds a competitive advantage in the industry.

10. Offset Remaining Emissions

Lastly, offsetting remaining emissions is crucial for achieving net-zero targets. You can take initiatives like reforestation, renewable energy, or methane capture for unavoidable emissions. For example, Google Cloud has achieved carbon neutrality since 2007 by purchasing high-quality offsets for any residual emissions.

The best part? The offsetting strategies keep you in the leadership position in your industry and encourage investors to invest in your business based on sustainability factors. 

How Does Migrating to Renewable Energy-Powered Data Centers Reduce Carbon Emissions?

Most of the large cloud service providers like Google and Microsoft are already leading the charge of this transformation. You can choose such cloud companies for reducing carbon emissions. 

For example, Google aims for 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030. 

On the other hand, Shopify moved its cloud workloads to Google Cloud specifically for its renewable energy commitments.

You can do this too!

However, if you want to install cloud infrastructure for your enterprise, then you should rely on solar or wind power.

What Role Does Workload Optimization and Resource Allocation Play in Minimizing Cloud Energy Use?

Are you paying more for cloud resources? Proper resource allocation and workload optimization are the right ways to minimize cloud energy use. Make sure, you are only using what you need so that you do not need to pay for unused capacity. You can adjust the following:

• Adjust VM sizes and storage to actual workload requirements.
• Dynamically scale resources up or down based on demand.
• Identify and shut down unused services or test environments.

You can consult with mobile app development company for a user-friendly analytics to find out and eliminate underutilized cloud resources. It saves both cost and emissions reductions.

How Can Server Virtualization and Consolidation Cut Carbon Footprint?

Mid-sized businesses should rely on server virtualization, which not only saves costs (pay as you go) but also reduces the carbon footprint. In short, server virtualization allows multiple applications to run on a single physical server. As a result, it reduces the total number of servers required. 

On the other hand, consolidation further streamlines the cloud infrastructure. It combines the clients cloud workloads into fewer, more efficient machines. 

Generally, cloud service providers prefer these approaches to modernize their IT infrastructure. It reduces their maintenance costs and charges lower fees from the clients. So these strategies are win-win both for service providers and clients. 

What are the Benefits of Selecting Cloud Regions with Lower Carbon Intensity?

You can consult with cloud service providers about the locations and select the right region that suits your business objective (depending on sustainability and targeted customers). 

Carbon intensity of the cloud region mainly depends on the local energy grid. Generally, hydro, wind, or solar powered cloud regions have a lower carbon footprint than coal or natural gas.

Google Cloud and AWS publish carbon data for their regions, which allows you to select the locations. For example, migrating workloads from a coal-powered region in the US to a hydro-powered region in Scandinavia cuts associated emissions by up to 90%.

Conclusion

The journey toward cloud carbon neutrality is no longer optional, it is essential for your enterprise that impacts your business. The strategies outlined in this guide are proven pathways to achieve meaningful carbon reductions. Companies like Netflix, Google, AWS and Microsoft have already demonstrated sustainable cloud practices. However, implementing these strategies is not easy for mid-small size businesses; it needs expertise, strategic planning, and the right technology partnerships. 

TechAhead’s sustainability-focused cloud consulting help enterprises reduce their carbon footprint. Our team of cloud architects and sustainability experts will conduct a carbon audit of your current infrastructure and develop a customized roadmap for achieving your net-zero goals. Feel free to contact us for a free cloud carbon assessment and discover how your organization can lead the way in sustainable digital transformation.