What is Carbon Footprint?
Carbon Footprint is a free dashboard in the Google Cloud Console that transparently displays the CO2 emissions associated with your cloud usage. The service calculates both gross and net emissions, taking into account Google’s investments in renewable energy.
The tool helps organizations with sustainability reporting and enables informed decisions to reduce cloud-related carbon footprint, such as choosing lower-emission regions.
Core Features
- Emissions calculation: Automatic calculation of CO2 emissions per project, service, and region
- Region comparison: Comparison of emission intensity across different Google Cloud regions
- Export: Data export for ESG and sustainability reports in GHG Protocol format
- Historical data: Temporal development of emissions with trend analysis
Typical Use Cases
ESG and Sustainability Reporting
Organizations use Carbon Footprint to include cloud-related emissions in their ESG reports and sustainability strategies. The data is GHG Protocol-compliant.
Emissions Optimization
IT teams deliberately choose Google Cloud regions with lower emission intensity for workloads where region selection is flexible, thereby reducing the carbon footprint.
Benefits
- Free for all Google Cloud customers
- Transparent, verifiable emission data
- Support for regulatory reporting obligations
- Concrete recommendations for emission reduction
Integration with innFactory
As a Google Cloud Partner, innFactory supports you with Carbon Footprint: sustainability strategy for cloud workloads, region optimization, and integration into ESG reporting workflows.
Typical Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Carbon Footprint?
Carbon Footprint is a free tool in the Google Cloud Console that calculates and visualizes the CO2 emissions associated with your cloud usage. It supports sustainability reporting.
How are emissions calculated?
Google calculates emissions based on the actual energy consumption of used services, the energy mix of the respective region, and Google's carbon offsetting programs. The methodology is transparently documented.
Can I use Carbon Footprint for ESG reports?
Yes, data can be exported for ESG and sustainability reports. Google provides emission data in GHG Protocol-compliant format.
