IBM is targeting a reduction in its customers' cloud computing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with the release of a new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered dashboard that calculates and optimizes the energy use and emissions associated with IBM cloud workloads and services.

The major hyperscale cloud providers, like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and Microsoft, share a history of offering similar cloud emissions calculator tools. According to Gartner analyst Ed Anderson, IBM's cloud carbon calculator stands out for its use of machine learning (ML) and advanced algorithms like linear regression to reveal emissions hotspots or anomalies based on patterns and trends.

AI applied in this way "has the potential to expose the sustainability implications of workload placement," Anderson told SDxCentral. By understanding the sources of energy in each grid where IBM data centers operate, enterprise customers can make sustainability-focused decisions about where to run workloads.

VP of IBM Cloud Product and Design Briana Frank told SDxCentral that "by regularly reviewing emissions activity and progress toward goals, organizations can accurately pinpoint emissions hotspots and proactively shift their strategy to ensure energy consumption and emissions are contained." Additional cloud services coverage is set to be released quarterly, but the tool is initially available for IBM's classic and cloud-native infrastructure services.

The calculator promotes sustainable action by offering data-informed insights that improve decision-making around emissions mitigation. IBM's tool also provides monthly, quarterly or annual outputs of energy consumption and emissions from IBM cloud services, along with "an accurate view of the company's current [IBM Cloud] emissions and how they are trending against goals."

And "as organizations work toward their yearly emissions targets, it’s critical they can effectively measure and assess emissions at any given time," Frank said.

For reporting purposes, IBM customers with an Envizi license can integrate their emissions data into IBM's ESG software for additional data analysis.

Frank highlighted IBM's partnership with Intel as a major driver behind the launch of the cloud carbon calculator. "This new tool is the culmination of both brands' deep commitment to sustainability and performance," she said.

This move follows IBM's earlier agreement to deliver Intel's fourth-generation Xeon scalable processor, which is "Intel's most sustainable data center processor," Frank noted. Those processors help IBM cloud users "accelerate sustainable computing journeys and reduce emissions."

To that point, the two vendors' partnership is aimed at solving unique business challenges, improving cloud performance and prioritizing environmental responsibility, she explained.

While carbon calculators are ideally meant to inform cloud usage and optimize for increased sustainability, there are possible greenwashing risks.

"Good cloud carbon calculators," Anderson explained, "should expose both positive and negative impacts of cloud usage. If the positives are accentuated and the negatives are obscured, then greenwashing has occurred," he said.

That instance of greenwashing can only be avoided by the company that creates and runs the calculator software and monitors the accuracy of collected data. IBM does note, however, that its cloud customers are responsible for confirming the accuracy of the tool's output for compliance, regulatory or any other purpose.