Sustainability Language

Energy & climate technology

Energy-efficient computing

Designing, manufacturing, using and disposing of computing equipment and software to minimise energy use and environmental impact.

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Definition

Energy-efficient computing (green or sustainable computing) is an IT strategy that maximises energy efficiency and minimises the environmental impact of IT infrastructure across the life cycle — covering efficient hardware and data centres, energy-aware software, virtualisation, renewable-powered operations and responsible end-of-life management.

References

Overview

What it means

The ICT sector is estimated to account for roughly 1. 8–3. 9% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with data centres consuming on the order of 3% of world electricity. The field ranges from hardware power management (the US EPA's Energy Star programme for computers dates to 1992) to green software engineering and AI workload efficiency.

How it is used

Applied in data-centre operations (PUE metrics), cloud procurement, software design and corporate digital-sustainability strategies.

Why it matters

Digitalisation and AI are among the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand; computing efficiency determines whether digital growth is compatible with climate targets.

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