OVHcloud debuts ‘comprehensive’ carbon calculator for customers

French Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider OVHcloud is rolling out an “exhaustive” carbon calculator to its customers to help make it easier for them to track the Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions generated by their cloud usage.

Eight months in the making, the tool is accessible via the OVHcloud customer panel, and – according to the company – will provide users with a granular level of detail about the carbon footprint of their cloud infrastructure.  

It has also been co-developed with Sopra Steria, and its results are location-based, meaning it factors in the different energy mix that OVHcloud draws on to power its datacentres, which can differ depending on where they are situated.

“The tool takes into account the estimated electrical consumption of servers from OVHcloud datacentre monitoring and maps them to their carbon equivalent, taking into account the cooling and networking equipment, as well as freight, manufacturing, end of life and waste management, to provide a complete picture of the actual carbon footprint,” the company said, in a statement.  

The company first went public with details of its planned carbon calculator tool in Spring 2023, with OVHcloud’s pledge that it would provide Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions data from launch, resulting in it garnering comparisons with a similar tool from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The latter’s take on the same technology – launched in March 2022 – has seen the public cloud giant come in for criticism for failing to provide a comprehensive enough view of the carbon footprint of its customers on account of the fact it does not track Scope 3 emissions.

In response, AWS confirmed to Computer Weekly in May 2023 that it was working to provide its customers with Scope 3 data from early 2024.

OVHCloud CEO Michel Paulin said that, coupled with the work the company has done to improve the energy and water efficiency of its datacentres, it has “sustainability rooted in its DNA”, and “constantly” challenges itself to improve the carbon footprint of its entire operations.

“We are more than ever aware of the importance for our customers of calculating their carbon footprint as accurately as possible,” he said.

“We are therefore extremely happy to give them a precise reading and understanding of it, all with a single click of the mouse.”

Fabienne Mathey-Girbig, executive director of corporate responsibility and sustainable development at Sopra Steria, said the calculator will enable businesses to easily understand the environmental impact of their cloud activities.

“As a major tech player in Europe, we have a key role to play in supporting a more sustainable digital landscape across the entire value chain, including employees, clients, suppliers and partners,” she said.

“We are proud of the trust placed in us to play an active role in this decarbonisation initiative.”