How Cloud Technology Can Impact Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions

As the Energy Transition has continued to accelerate, software has become a main focal point in the reduction of emissions, as well as the support of producing reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy. Organizations are becoming more interested in the acquisition of renewable assets, getting more focused about the impact their operation has on the environment, and are thinking more than ever about how they can balance the pressures of profit and innovation.

One strategy we see many energy industrials exercise for both profit and innovation is cloud technology.

As many readers will know, cloud is an enabler of greater scale, elasticity, security, integration, and data storage. By hosting software in cloud environments, organizations can also take advantage of the technology to reduce overall costs and decrease the hardware required to host individual applications or enterprise solutions—freeing up their IT resources to focus on value-add projects.

Beyond the above, well-known benefits, moving applications to the cloud can help redirect the Scope 2 emissions from the energy companies to Scope 1 for a hyperscaler, ensuring they are prioritized and addressed at scale.

Consider this infographic created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that summarizes Scope 1, 2 and 3 of greenhouse gases (GHG). This graphic provides an overview of GHG protocol scopes and emissions. Although this doesn’t encompass all scopes it helps to set the stage for the rest of this blog.

As you can see, GHG emissions are classified as:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions caused by a company through operation of the things it owns. 
• Scope 2: Indirect emissions created by the production of the energy that an organization buys.
• Scope 3: Indirect emissions produced by the consumers of a company's products or produced by suppliers making products the company uses. 

Scope 3 is almost always the largest of the three, yet the most difficult to control. 

GE Digital is a proud strategic partner of Amazon Web Services (AWS) due to our shared vision in accelerating the Energy Transition. Today, GE Digital’s Asset Performance Management (APM) software supports hundreds of organizations. By reducing unplanned downtime, providing predictive analytics, and actively monitoring asset heat rates, we are doing our part to support the path ahead. Meanwhile, AWS is building a sustainable business starting at the design of their data centers and ending with a commitment to the usage of renewable energy to run their operation.

Studies by 451 Research have shown that AWS’ infrastructure is 3.6 times more energy efficient than the median of U.S. enterprise data centers surveyed and up to five times more energy efficient than the average in Europe. 451 Research also found that AWS can lower customers’ workload carbon footprints by nearly 80% compared to surveyed enterprise data centers, and up to 96% once AWS is powered with 100% renewable energy—a target they on path to meet by 2025. It is important to note, that although moving to cloud does impact the efficiency of computing, it does not completely eliminate emissions.

With GE Digital’s APM hosted in an AWS cloud environment, our software together can help provide insights that directly impact the reduction of Scope 1 emissions and support hosting software with renewable sources.

Emissions Immediately Impacted with Cloud

1. Reduction in Scope 1: For energy companies, on-premises activity is reported as Scope 1. However, it's almost always a fraction of what makes up that total. By moving to the cloud, the emissions related to power and cool servers is now supported by AWS or another providers who is addressing at scale. In fact, many hyperscalers prioritize renewable power for their activities. Therefore, your organization can decrease direct emissions while also gaining access to the other benefits of the cloud.

2. Reduction in Scope 2: Dependent of size, scale, and budget of an operation, there might also be a requirement to lease space and servers to support workloads.

   Additionally, work travel associated with on-premises hosting can be reduced. In an increasingly digital world, many companies are now embracing a flexible work culture that is amplified by cloud. Organizations can now enable employees to access software securely from anywhere or reduce IT travel for maintaining on-premises software.

   For APM specifically, cloud technology can give users the ability to prioritize work tasks and potentially limit travel required to perform certain tasks. For example, with time-to-action and predictive analytics, APM users can prioritize work across a large footprint with accurate data—giving the operation the ability to make doing work more efficient. Cloud software such as Microsoft Teams, WebEx, Box, Drop Box and others also create the ability to reduce business travel and collaborate from every corner of the world.

Ultimately, the path to producing available, reliable, and sustainable energy is not a straight line. At this moment, nearly every organization is learning how to best balance generating profits, reducing emissions, and increasing innovation to prepare for the future. With the continued acceleration of cloud technology and commitment to Sustainability, making the shift from on-premises workloads can be a beneficial start to becoming a more GHG conscious operation and increase your commitment of leveraging renewables. 

Learn more about GE Digital’s Solutions for energy and materials companies.