Insights

Articles on cloud carbon emissions, AI sustainability, and green software.

How Much Carbon Does the Cloud Produce? Why nobody knows what they’re talking about, and what can be done about it

by Jamie Wigley

Cloud computing powers over 90% of enterprises, but its impact on carbon remains a black box. While standards exist for manufacturing and logistics emissions, methods for calculating the carbon costs of the cloud are so inconsistent that the two most common approaches produce results differing by 50x. With regulators closing in, that ambiguity is becoming a liability.

In Pursuit of the Sustainable Data Center

by Jamie Wigley

Global demand for cloud computing, driven in large part by the expansion of AI, is on an ever-increasing upward trajectory. Attempting to mitigate this expansion is the pursuit of the sustainable data center: facilities that can meet the world’s need for on-demand digital services whilst also being highly energy and water efficient, compatible with local environments, and emitting zero carbon.

Data Centers, A Necessary Evil?

by Jamie Wigley

Data centers are as integral to modern life as running water or electric lights, but we are only just coming to terms with their enormous environmental impacts. If we cannot stop using data centers, how do we mitigate their impacts on the world we have to live in?

Watt's Up, GPU?

by Jamie Wigley

Tailpipe has built software for measuring the power draw of GPUs in cloud servers and is delighted to now make that software open source.

AI Energy Consumption is Draining the World's Carbon Budget

by Jamie Wigley

By 2030, datacenters are expected to consume 3% of global electricity consumption, driven by the exponential growth in AI usage. As the internet becomes increasingly over-saturated with AI content, we must consider: is the environmental cost worth the output?

Introducing the Tailpipe API

by Jamie Wigley

We’ve built Tailpipe to make it easy for organizations to measure and reduce the carbon emissions of their cloud computing workloads. Now, with the Tailpipe API, you can bring that same visibility and intelligence directly into your own tools, dashboards, and workflows.