New assessments paint an alarming picture when it comes to carbon emissions associated with technology. Data centers have been under fire recently for their outsized carbon footprint. In reality, end-user devices produce 1.5 and up to 2 times the amount of carbon as all data centers together. This disturbing revelation raises important questions about the tech industry’s approach to sustainability measurement. Most importantly, it underscores the great emissions created during the manufacturing stage of devices.
The private data center industry goes so far as to measure power usage effectiveness with three decimal points of precision. It leverages machine-like precision to maximize water use intensity. This focus on operational efficiency drives an emissions blindspot where end-user devices are concerned. Nearly three-quarters of the carbon footprint of such devices occurs in their actual production. This is referred to as embodied carbon.
Understanding Embodied Carbon and Its Impact
Emissions associated with technology can be categorized into various segments: embodied carbon, operational emissions, and device lifecycles. Data centers only have 16 percent of their total emissions going to embodied carbon. In stark contrast, devices are responsible for a whopping 45 percent of these emissions. Data centers not only rely on a huge amount of energy, they represent 24 percent of total operational emissions. By comparison, devices account for just 15 percent.
Recent studies have indicated that devices are responsible for as much as 60 percent of total IT emissions. Data centers are on the hook for 40 percent of these emissions. This new approach brings into further focus the need to consider all stages of the lifecycle of devices and not only how efficiently they work in action. It turns out that manufacturing a single smartphone creates almost 50 kg of CO2 equivalent (CO2e). By comparison, a laptop emits about 200 kg in CO2e. On a global scale, an estimated 1 billion smartphones are replaced each year! This substitution leads to about 50 million tonnes of CO2e emissions just from smartphone production.
The Case for Longer Device Lifecycles
One promising solution to reduce these emissions is through prolonging the lifecycles of smartphones and other devices. Smartphones are normally replaced every two years, laptops every three to four years, printers every five years. Even just extending the average lifespan of smartphones to three years can make a big difference. As a result, it would cut annual manufacturing emissions by an astounding 33 percent.
It’s been estimated there are more than 2 billion laptops in active circulation around the globe. Making even small improvements to replacement cycles can have a big effect on the environment. The positive impact is even more pronounced when you take into account the implications of extending device lifecycles across all device categories. This strategy increases reuse, preventing the need for at least some new manufacturing and the emissions that come with it.
Initiatives and Future Projections
To address these pressing issues, initiatives like GreenSKUs have emerged, demonstrating that an 8 percent reduction in embodied carbon is achievable through focused efforts. AI-related workloads are first-order concerns that are rapidly changing the landscape and scale of data center operations. By 2028, they are projected to be responsible for 6.7-12 percent of all U.S. electric consumption. Ensuring that this explosive growth occurs with sustainable practices across the technology ecosystem is imperative.
The problem is twofold. First, we need to make data centers more expensive to run. Second, we must establish a sustainability ethos where device durability and ethical manufacturing are central to the design process. The tech industry is at a moment of great change. Direct and indirect emissions stakeholders need to take a hard look at how they plan to tackle emissions from not only data centers but end-user devices.