The Tool Desk
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How much electricity does my cloud workload use?
Cloud services use electricity, but a cloud provider’s carbon-emissions figure is not an electricity-use figure. Keep energy in kilowatt-hours (kWh) separate from emissions in kilograms of carbon-dioxide equivalent (kg CO2e). Converting between them requires an electricity emissions factor and a stated accounting basis.
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Use the following order of evidence:
- Customer-specific energy data: Prefer a provider report tied to your account, services, region, and dates, with a clear allocation method.
- Workload energy plus a matching facility factor: If you have IT-equipment kWh but not facility electricity, estimate facility electricity as IT kWh × PUE. This is appropriate only when the PUE factor covers the same facilities, period, and scope as the energy data.
- No compatible energy factor: Report the data gap rather than applying a generic provider-wide average as though it were a workload measurement.
For Google Cloud, SKU usage is the primary allocation basis described for dividing each product’s total electricity carbon footprint among customers. Google’s method uses hourly machine workload and power information, allocates dynamic energy to the internal services supported, and assigns idle energy to Google internal services in its described scheme. This is a provider-specific allocation method, not a universal formula for all clouds. Google Cloud’s methodology
A reported carbon footprint can help explain an allocated environmental impact, but it should not be relabeled as kWh. If you convert emissions to electricity or electricity to emissions, disclose the applicable grid- or market-based emissions factor and its basis.
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What is the water footprint of cloud computing?
First identify which water measure is being reported. Water withdrawal is water taken from a source; water consumption is water not returned to the source in the same way or timeframe. A provider’s operational cooling-water metric does not automatically include water used to generate electricity, nor does it necessarily represent water allocated to your account.
If you have IT-equipment energy and a compatible water-use effectiveness (WUE) factor, a rough operational facility estimate is:
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Operational data-center water ≈ IT-equipment electricity (kWh) × WUE (liters per kWh)
Use this only when the WUE numerator measures the water you intend to estimate and the facilities and period match the IT energy. It is a facility-level proxy, not necessarily a customer allocation, and it may omit indirect water associated with electricity generation.
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Microsoft defines WUE as annual liters used for humidification and cooling divided by annual kWh used to power IT equipment. Its FY2025 global WUE was 0.27 L/kWh, alongside a global PUE of 1.17. These are data-center efficiency figures, not workload-specific allocations: Microsoft says they cover fully owned and controlled sites operational for 12 months at calculation time. FY2025 ran from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. Location and climate affect WUE. Microsoft’s datacenter efficiency metrics
AWS describes a different approach for customer-attributable water: allocating attributable data-center withdrawals to customer accounts in proportion to cloud service use. Its defined boundary includes water withdrawn to support cloud services in owned, leased, or controlled data-center facilities, including cooling, some domestic uses, and fire-flow tanks. It excludes offices, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and customer-hosted sites identified in its documentation. This is an estimate under AWS’s stated boundary, not a complete lifecycle water footprint. AWS water methodology
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How do I estimate the environmental impact of cloud services?
- Set the scope. Record the account or project, services and SKUs, region, and start and end dates. Keep compute, storage, networking, managed services, and Marketplace items separate when the provider reports them separately.
- Collect usage and provider data. Retrieve billed usage and check the provider’s sustainability report or export for customer-specific electricity, water, and emissions estimates. Read the methodology and note its version, allocation unit, included facilities, and exclusions.
- Choose the closest supported calculation. Use customer-specific provider allocations when available. If starting from IT kWh, use PUE for facility electricity or WUE for an operational water estimate only when each factor matches the energy data’s location, period, and scope.
- Keep the outputs distinct. Report electricity in kWh, water in liters or cubic meters, and emissions in kg CO2e. State whether water means withdrawal or consumption and whether it is direct operational water or includes indirect water from electricity generation.
- Label estimates and gaps. Record the allocation rule, factor source, period, geography, and exclusions. If a compatible factor or customer allocation is unavailable, say so instead of filling the gap with an unsupported universal average.
AWS says its Sustainability service estimates environmental impacts, including carbon and water, for AWS cloud-service use. AWS states that its current estimates cover workloads on AWS-operated infrastructure and that Marketplace software development and maintenance on third-party infrastructure are not included. Its methods are based on industry standards and independently verified; methodology changes can also lead to historical estimates being recalculated. AWS Sustainability calculation methodology
How to compare provider estimates fairly
Two results are not directly comparable just because both are labeled “water” or “electricity.” Check that they use equivalent boundaries and units before drawing conclusions.
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- INSTALLS IN CIRCUIT PANEL of most homes with clamp-on sensors. Supports Single phase, Single-split phase, and 2-wire systems. 3-wire systems; 3-phase, 4-wire Wye systems with earthed (TN or TT) neutral (no-Delta) are supported with an additional 200A sensor (sold separately).
- 24/7 ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND MONITORING: Automate, manage and control your home's real power anywhere, anytime to prevent costly repairs, conserve energy, and save costs. Monitor solar / net metering. PROTECTED BY A 1-YEAR WARRANTY.
- LOWER YOUR ELECTRIC BILL: Configure settings in the Emporia Energy App to automate energy management for time of use, peak demand, excess solar, and rewards programs. You can even see live reporting and invaluable savings opportunities instantly. Gauge real-time spending and get actionable notifications and automated energy management to help you reduce costs.
- REAL-TIME ENERGY DATA: REQUIRES 2.4 GHz WIFI WITH AN INTERNET CONNECTION to monitor energy use with iPhone / Android / Web app. Vue sensors collect energy data and are accurate from ±2%. The Vue is UL and CE Listed for your safety. 1 second data is only available in the app (when actively open) and retained 3 hours. Minute and hour data are retained in the cloud. 1 minute data is retained 7 days, 1 hour data is retained indefinitely. Export cloud data whenever you want in the app.
- Coverage: Which services, facilities, and infrastructure are included?
- Geography and time: Do the figures cover the same region and reporting period?
- Allocation: Is impact assigned by SKU usage, proportional service use, or another disclosed rule?
- Energy denominator: Is the figure for IT-equipment energy or total facility electricity?
- Water measure: Is it withdrawal or consumption, and does it cover direct facility operations, electricity generation, or both?
- Specificity: Is this a customer-specific allocation or a provider-wide facility average?
For example, AWS’s proportional service-use allocation of attributable withdrawals and Google Cloud’s SKU-based allocation of product electricity carbon are different accounting methods. Neither should be substituted for the other or treated as an identical measurement.
What to include in a published estimate
A useful estimate is reproducible. Include the provider, account or workload scope, services or SKUs, region, dates, units, data source, allocation method, and factor version. For water, identify withdrawal or consumption and the boundary; for energy, state whether you report IT or facility electricity. List exclusions and mark provider-wide factors as proxies rather than customer measurements.
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