Digital carbon footprint

With energy defined as our carbon proxy, we can now more clearly understand how to measure the emissions generated by our software.

Digital Carbon Footprint

This term refers to the total amount of carbon emissions equivalent to the energy consumed throughout the life cycle of digital goods and services.

This definition has now become our pivotal metric for estimating carbon emissions from digital activities, providing a tangible measure to aid us in understanding and mitigating the environmental impact of our digital operations. However, quantifying the digital carbon footprint presents additional challenges, primarily due to the metric’s reliance on the carbon intensity of electricity.

To contextualize this, it’s beneficial to compare it with “traditional” carbon footprint measurements. Unlike the more direct emissions from transportation or manufacturing, the digital carbon footprint is linked to the energy sources...