Amazon Web Service (AWS), a cloud computing platform provided by e-commerce giant Amazon, has launched a free tool for customers to track their cloud consumption’s carbon footprint and to compare it to the estimated footprint of an on-premise data center.
The introduction of AWS carbon tracker is part of Amazon’s climate commitment, which is marked by former CEO Jeff Bezos’s pledge in 2019 that the company would have net zero emissions by 2040.
With the new tool, customers will be able to measure and forecast their AWS emissions, as well as predict changes as they monitor workloads in the cloud, upgrade apps, and clean up underutilized cloud resources.
By comparing cloud emissions to the predicted output for the identical resources given on-premise, the tool is designed to promote AWS as an alternative to enterprise data centers.
“We co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019 as part of Amazon's efforts to improve sustainability and reduce carbon emissions. We, along with the other 216 Pledge members, are committed to achieving net zero goal by 2040, ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement," AWS chief evangelist Jeff Barr stated in a blog post. “We're removing carbon from our operations in a variety of ways.”
Customers respond positively when being told that shifting their apps to AWS will reduce their carbon footprint by 88% compared to enterprise data centers, according to Barr.
The Customer Carbon Footprint Tool, as well as other use reports, are available in the AWS billing panel. It shows emissions in summary, by location, and by service, and reports down to a one-month period.
The tool helps firms estimate how much higher the emissions of the same resources would be if located in an enterprise data center, and it also includes maps that demonstrates how the AWS path to 100% renewable energy for its data centers will have a positive effect on customer’s emissions reduction goal.
Big Techs have been working on carbon tracking innovations in recent years, with Google releasing a carbon footprint tool in February and Microsoft launching one for Azure in July 2021.
