CO2 Efficiency and Green IT: Efficient Use of the AWS Cloud

In an increasingly digital world, where companies rely on cloud infrastructures like Amazon Web Services (AWS) to efficiently scale and manage their IT resources, awareness of environmental impact is growing. The CO2 emissions of data centers and IT infrastructures have become a critical issue. Green IT – the development and use of environmentally friendly technologies and IT services – is now a necessity, not only for ecological but also for economic reasons.

In this whitepaper, we aim to explore how companies can reduce both their CO2 emissions and operational costs by optimizing their use of AWS. We focus on the topics of CO2 efficiency and Green IT as well as best practices for efficient AWS usage.

According to a report by IDC, the IT industry could account for up to 21% of global electricity consumption by 2030. This growing energy demand not only leads to higher operational costs but also significantly increases CO2 emissions.
Using cloud services like AWS can help mitigate this impact, as cloud providers like AWS operate large, energy-efficient data centers that often utilize renewable energy. AWS has also set a goal to power its global data centers with 100% renewable energy by 2025.

However, choosing a cloud infrastructure alone is not enough. Companies must ensure their AWS resources are efficiently managed to further reduce CO2 emissions. This is where CO2 efficiency strategies come into play, aiming to balance the number and size of instances, energy consumption, and computational performance.