The world is currently facing a climate emergency, and most corporate giants are trying to curb carbon emissions somehow and bring climate change to a halt. Amazon is no different.
In fact, Amazon Web Services are highly committed to the goal of switching entirely to Net-Zero carbon emissions by the year 2040. They made this claim as part of its Climate Pledge back in 2019. Naturally, this will also help all the businesses that are currently integrating AWS in their systems and switching to the cloud.
Switching To The Cloud Is A Sustainable Practice
Switching to the cloud itself is a very sustainable practice, and businesses worldwide are aspiring currently to incorporate the cloud into their businesses.
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For example, the need for hefty physical infrastructure and generating power for that infrastructure in businesses that are currently not cloud-based is one of the biggest reasons for carbon emissions in a corporate climate. Cloud-based systems, such as those that use AWS, use much less power and physical space, making them environmentally friendly.
Other than that, cloud usage is usually pay-per-use, which means clients only have to pay for the space they utilize in the cloud and no more, and all of that space is virtual and therefore has no impact on the climate. On the other hand, many organizations purchase extensive hardware for times when their usage peaks so they can have enough space to continue work as usual. When peak times are over, this extra hardware becomes redundant and often stays that way for a long time. Eventually, it could become waste and only add to the landfills that are contributing so much to climate change.
There is also high electricity usage in physical workspaces dedicated to a single organization. This electricity could be generated by any means and could utilize many resources to power up a single office. When you switch to the cloud, no extra electricity is required to run the system. Therefore, the system can run as sustainably as possible.
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AWS Is Switching To 100% Renewable Power
Yes, switching to the cloud is a great sustainable practice. But what is it about AWS in particular that makes switching to this platform so useful for the current climate state?
For starters, AWS is switching to 100% renewable power by 2025. They also claim that by that time, all businesses that have incorporated AWS in their system will be lowering their carbon emissions by a whopping 96%. This shows AWS’s commitment to combating climate change while also helping businesses run efficiently and securely.
Currently, AWS has claimed that businesses in Europe should be able to cut down their energy usage by 80% when they use AWS as a platform instead of their own data services.
While it is true that AWS is using the concerns regarding our climate put forth by their clients to further up their game among all corporations, we cannot disregard the fact that it’s actually working.
Amazon has planned to reach net-zero carbon by the year 2040. This means that by the year 2040, Amazon plans only to utilize carbon emissions that it can then offset by other means.
However, it is important to note that Amazon ended up releasing nearly 19% more carbon emissions in 2021 than it did in 2020, and its emissions increased to 15% more in 2020 than they were in 2019. The data can be found in Amazon’s sustainability report. Therefore, we can see the need to expedite their switch to renewable energy and minimize carbon emissions as much as possible within the next few years.
AWS Has A Tool For Tracking Carbon Emissions
To help make their customers more vigilant about their own carbon footprint, AWS has also released a tool designed to help their clients track their carbon footprint.
The tool makes use of visual aids to help the customers easily figure out their present and past carbon emissions. It also helps the customers find ways to further reduce carbon emissions from their businesses by optimizing their sustainability further. The tool will also help businesses understand how much carbon emissions they have avoided since switching to AWS for their business as well.
The tool can also measure two different scopes of energy emissions: the first would measure emissions from the company itself, and the second scope measures the generation of energy to power Amazon facilities.
The tool can help in measuring emissions in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents, because of which they can account for all of the other greenhouse gasses such as methane that have been released as carbon emissions.
Customers of AWS can access the sustainability tool through their AWS billing console. Over time, they can gather retrospective data on how they have helped reduce emissions in their location and then move on to optimize their business further.
All in all, this tool for tracking carbon emissions is an excellent way for businesses that use AWS to keep their sustainability in check and constantly work on improving their sustainability goals.
The release and effectiveness of this tool show us that AWS will be committed to releasing more such tools in the near future, which will help businesses to optimize their practices to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible. Therefore, there is no doubt that AWS is committed to its goal of reducing the impact of climate change as much as possible.
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Final Thoughts on how AWS Reduces Climate Change
AWS is one of the biggest cloud providers globally, and people worldwide make use of these services for their businesses. Since it is a giant corporation, they have a huge responsibility to the environment and the climate. They should call for sustainable practices and deploy effective measures to make it possible.
AWS is now playing its part in becoming sustainable and, in turn, also making all their customers adopt sustainable practices as well. We hope to see improvements from AWS in terms of climate change in the future as well. Contact us to learn more about how AWS Reduces Climate Change.
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