@inproceedings{berger2023research,
author = {Berger, Daniel S. and Kazhamiaka, Fiodar and Choukse, Esha and Goiri, Íñigo and Irvene, Celine and Misra, Pulkit and Kumbhare, Alok and Fonseca, Rodrigo and Bianchini, Ricardo},
title = {Research Avenues Towards Net-Zero Cloud Platforms},
organization = {IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA-29)},
booktitle = {NetZero 2023: 1st Workshop on NetZero Carbon Computing},
year = {2023},
month = {February},
abstract = {The carbon impact of cloud providers spans on-site generators and staff emissions (scope 1), purchased energy (scope 2), and carbon embedded in chips, PCBs, racks/server enclosures, and buildings (scope 3). Scope 1 contributes negligible amounts. Before shifting to renewable energy (avenue 2 below), scope 2 made up the majority of carbon emissions. With renewable energy, scope 3 dominates carbon emissions and cloud providers pursue reducing and then offsetting the remaining emissions. With the high cost of carbon offsets, reducing carbon emissions will become a long-standing priority.
This abstract describes six high-impact reseach avenues that can reduce the carbon emissions of cloud platforms by an order of magnitude. While based on internal life cycle assessments, they describe only a subset of active initiatives at Microsoft. Our carbon impact estimates are subject to confidentiality agreements with third parties to evaluate scope 3 impacts and they may change as life cycle assessments
become increasingly detailed. Consequently, we focus on a qualitative description of sustainability avenues},
url = {http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/research/publication/research-avenues-towards-net-zero-cloud-platforms/},
}