Cloud Computing and Sustainability

Last Updated on April 22, 2025 by Arnav Sharma

Cloud computing has changed how we store, process, and access data. It allows businesses to run applications, store files, and analyse information over the internet using massive data centres spread across the world. While it’s efficient and flexible, there’s a growing conversation around its environmental impact. How sustainable is the cloud? And what can businesses do to make it better?

This blog dives into cloud sustainability—why it matters, what providers are doing, and how your organisation can take smart steps to reduce its cloud footprint.

What Sustainability in Cloud Really Means

When we talk about sustainability in cloud computing, it’s not just about saving energy. It includes three main areas:

• Environmental: Using energy wisely, lowering carbon emissions, managing water and electronic waste, and reducing raw material use.
• Economic: Saving costs through efficient operations, supporting innovation, and enabling circular economy practices (like reusing old hardware).
• Social: Helping communities, creating jobs in green tech, improving access to technology, and being mindful of ethics and supply chains.

The Environmental Impact of the Cloud

Cloud data centres require a lot of power, water, and equipment. Here’s why it matters:

• Power-Hungry Operations: Data centres globally consume hundreds of terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per year. This is rising fast due to increased demand and AI workloads.
• Cooling Systems: Over 40% of energy in a data centre can go just towards cooling equipment.
• Carbon Emissions: Many data centres still rely on fossil fuels. This leads to carbon emissions similar to (or worse than) the airline industry.
• Water Use: Cooling large data centres can use millions of litres of water daily, which creates stress in water-scarce regions.
• E-Waste: Servers are often replaced every few years. If not reused or recycled, this creates mountains of electronic waste.
• AI Pressure: AI models like ChatGPT require a lot of computational power to train and run, which increases energy use, water needs, and e-waste.

What Are Cloud Providers Doing About It?

Leading cloud providers are working on solutions.

• Renewable Energy Goals: AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are all aiming to run entirely on renewable energy by 2029–2030.
• Data Centre Efficiency: They are improving metrics like PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) and using custom hardware to consume less energy.
• Water Stewardship: Providers like Microsoft and Google are working to return more water to the environment than they consume.
• Circular Economy: Reusing and recycling hardware is a key part of their strategy. AWS reused over 14 million components last year.
• Customer Tools: They provide dashboards to help customers track their own emissions from cloud usage.

Key Metrics to Track Cloud Sustainability

Here are three important measurements to understand:

These give you an idea of how efficient your cloud provider’s infrastructure is.

Why Should Businesses Care About Green Cloud?

Making your cloud usage more sustainable isn’t just about being eco-friendly — it also benefits your business:

• Saves Money: Right-sizing workloads, using efficient services, and turning off unused resources can save a lot of money.
• Improves Brand Image: Customers and partners like to support responsible companies.
• Prepares for Regulations: Many countries are setting rules for emissions and data reporting. Being ahead of these trends avoids last-minute stress.
• Drives Innovation: Sustainable practices often lead to more efficient operations and the use of new technologies.
• Helps the Planet: Every small change adds up to lower global emissions and better resource use.

How to Make Your Cloud Usage Greener

Here’s what you can do:

• Right-Size Everything: Only use what you need. Eliminate idle servers and extra storage.
• Pick Greener Regions: Cloud regions powered by clean energy (like Canada or Northern Europe) are better choices.
• Schedule Smartly: Run big tasks when clean energy is more available (like sunny afternoons).
• Use Serverless: These automatically scale with demand and avoid overprovisioning.
• Write Efficient Code: Optimise applications to use less compute power and reduce unnecessary data transfers.
• Use FinOps and GreenOps: These are frameworks to manage cloud costs and emissions.
• Clean Up Data: Archive or delete unused data to cut storage-related emissions.

Best Practices for Sustainable Cloud Usage

Looking Ahead: What’s Next for Cloud Sustainability

The future is full of promise. Innovations are emerging every day:

• Advanced Cooling: Liquid- and air-free cooling saves energy and water.
• Efficient Hardware: Custom chips like AWS Graviton or Google TPUs do more with less power.
• AI for Optimisation: AI is being used to manage energy in real time, making systems smarter and more efficient.
• Better Reporting Tools: More transparent carbon tools are helping users track their cloud emissions more accurately.
• Policy Support: Governments may soon require green reporting for IT operations — and cloud can help you stay compliant.

Final Thoughts

Cloud computing is powerful — but power comes with responsibility. The digital world relies heavily on infrastructure we don’t see, and that infrastructure needs to be built and run responsibly. By making smart cloud choices today, businesses can cut costs, support innovation, and be part of the global effort to build a more sustainable future.