Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered a way to significantly reduce the environmental impacts of cloud computing, according to a university report published by Xplore Technology.

The report explains that a team of scientists at the university created a systematic way to design and deploy what they call GreenSKUs, or “carbon-efficient server designs that minimize the overall emissions of a whole cloud.” by promoting its effectiveness.

Additionally, the researchers created a first-of-its-kind framework called GSF that will enable “cloud providers to systematically make informed decisions when designing and deploying carbon-efficient SKUs,” according to the report. The team tested GSF against Microsoft Azure production constraints and was theoretically able to reduce pollution caused by global warming by about 10%.

This type of solution could make a big difference in the amount of these pollutants released into the atmosphere. Information and communication technologies currently represent between 2% and 4% of global carbon pollution and is expected to increase significantly if nothing is done to address it, according to the report. Cloud computing plays an important role due to its operational and industrial impact.

AI platforms like ChatGPT are expected to be a major contributor to this increase in pollution, as they require large amounts of energy to operate, the researchers noted.

“The rise of machine learning and large language models like ChatGPT will require the deployment of servers with specialized hardware in the cloud,” commented the study principal investigator Jaylen Wang, doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering, by Tech Xplore.

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With this in mind, companies and scientists are looking for ways to reduce this impact. For example, a project in Germany involves building data centers inside wind turbines to make them more sustainable. Additionally, Microsoft recently struck a deal that would allow it to use nuclear energy to power its data centers (and it’s important to note that this energy source is still available). controversial as a clean energy source due to spent fuel management and past nuclear accidents).

Meanwhile, the CMU team tackled another environmental problem associated with technology: planned obsolescence, which leads to waste. According to Statista searcha market and consumer data provider, around 68 million tonnes of e-waste were generated globally in 2022. This figure is expected to rise to around 90 million tonnes in 2030.

According to the Geneva Environment Networke-waste harms people and the environment because it is toxic, non-biodegradable and accumulates in soil, air, water and living things. Additionally, the planned obsolescence that leads to much of this electronic waste causes even more global warming pollution due to the more frequent production of new technological elements.

“In our work, we have targeted planned obsolescence by reusing decommissioned components in our carbon-efficient server designs,” Wang said, according to Tech Xplore. “Finding ways to use hardware for longer, across all computing domains, is something this work motivates.”

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