The Cloud Goes Further & Further From Net-Zero

You’ve probably seen in the newspapers, online, or even in your own place of business, commitments from companies to reduce their emissions, to reach the ultimate goal of becoming “Net-zero”. A target of net-zero means a company will have zero emissions (or it is able to offset any emissions it creates). According to SBTI, 5,791 companies currently have approved net zero targets to be reached no later than 2050. If you had to pick 3 companies to be on that list, if your life depended on it, who would you guess?

Chances are, the first companies that jumped to mind to you are probably big tech companies - the likes of Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and others. Big tech companies are often at the forefront of sustainability, why? The main reason is these high-margin, profitable businesses can afford to go green; though big tech likes to tout that they’re doing it to address concerns from their employees, customers, and other stakeholders. It also helps that these are largely digital / software businesses that do not have a large, physical footprint that needs to be offset in the first place…AI is changing the arithmetic.

Case Study #1 - Google (GCP)

In 2021, Google set an ambitious target to achieve net zero emissions across all operations and value chains by 2030. This meant reducing 50% of Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions from a 2019 baseline, and investing in nature-based and technology-based carbon removal solutions to neutralize the rest.

A short 2 years later, Google's greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 were 48% higher than in 2019, according to its latest environmental report, blaming increasing amounts of energy needed by its data centers, exacerbated by the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI).

Google admits that "as we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging."

Case Study #2 - Microsoft (Azure)

A similar song is playing at Microsoft. Four years ago, in 2020, Microsoft announced the ambitious goal of removing more carbon than it emits by the end of the decade (2030). Now the software giant's relentless push to be the global leader in artificial intelligence is putting that goal in peril.

The Seattle-based company’s total planet-warming impact is about 30% higher today than it was in 2020, according to the latest sustainability report published in May of 2024. That makes getting to below zero by 2030 even harder than it was when it announced its carbon-negative goal. The tech giant plans to spend more than $50 billion between July 2023 and June of 2024 to expand its data centers to meet rising demand for AI products, and a higher amount going forward.

Case Study #3 - Amazon (AWS)

Okay, I think you know the tune at this point. The physical delivery and manufacturing business of Amazon dominates its carbon footprint to a much greater extent than its more software-focused competitors, but it too signed the Climate Pledge in 2019 to be net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Amazon has been a bit better than Google & Microsoft, reducing its total carbon emissions 3% this past year (normalized against the growth of the business, they were down 13%). However, much of the reduction comes from ‘creative accounting’ - investing in renewable projects (RECs or PPAs) to balance out the use of non-renewable energy sources elsewhere. 

Amazon’s own employees, members of the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ) group published their own “unsustainability” report the same day their company did, calling the company’s own sustainability report into question. 

“When we look at the locations in the US where Amazon actually operates its datacentres, we estimate Amazon only gets 22% renewable energy from the local utilities in those regions,” the report stated. “And it is investing in datacentre expansion in locations heavily dependent on oil, gas and coal – like Northern Virginia and Saudi Arabia.

“How can Amazon claim that its operations are powered by 90% renewable energy when the renewable energy projects it is responsible for don’t actually power its operations?”

Solution: Build AI

New (AI) data center construction without additional, clean power risks raising power prices and grid emissions.

At Build AI, we see this writing on the wall and are only deploying data centers that use renewable energy and importantly have agreements with local utilities to not contribute to their peak loads (e.g. demand response). This means pausing AI models being trained at their checkpoints and turning off our data centers during the day (~5-8pm) when the grid is most strained, when power prices are the highest / the power is predominantly coming from fossil fuels. We’re a team of specialists that wants to make AI training less expensive, more accessible, and better for the planet. 

Lower cost & lower environmental impact - start training your AI models with Build AI today. To get started, please complete our short questionnaire detailing your requirements.