AWS Reinvent 2023 Ignites a Sustainability Revolution

5 min readDec 22, 2023

AWS Re: Invent 2023 had a strong focus on sustainability, with several announcements and events highlighting their commitment to reducing their environmental impact and helping customers build sustainable cloud solutions. Here are some key highlights:

Renewable Energy:

100% Renewable Energy by 2025: AWS reiterated its aggressive goal of powering its global infrastructure with 100% renewable energy by 2025. They are currently at 90% globally and have achieved 100% in-region renewable energy usage in several regions, including the US West (Oregon).
New Renewable Energy Projects: AWS announced several new renewable energy projects to achieve their goals, including contracts for wind and solar farms across various regions.

Sustainability Tools and Services:

Amazon Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Network: AWS launched the Amazon SDG Network, a community platform for organizations to collaborate and use technology to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
AWS Graviton4 and Trainium2: These new processors for EC2 instances offer improved performance and energy efficiency, allowing customers to build sustainable workloads.
AWS Well-Architected Framework Sustainability Pillar: AWS updated the Sustainability Pillar of its Well-Architected Framework, with new best practices and guidance for building sustainable cloud architectures.
Amazon CloudWatch for Sustainability: This new service helps customers monitor and optimize the environmental impact of their cloud workloads.
Sustainability Showcase: AWS re: Invent featured a dedicated Sustainability Showcase with demos and presentations highlighting technologies and customer examples of sustainable cloud solutions.

Other initiatives:

Frugal Architect Approach: AWS Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels advocated for a “Frugal Architect” approach, emphasizing building cost-aware, sustainable, and modern cloud architectures.
Focus on Climate Action: Several re: Invent sessions and workshops addressed climate action topics, including wildfire detection and management using drones and AI.

Overall, AWS re: Invent 2023 demonstrated a clear commitment to sustainability and offered various tools and resources for customers to build and run their cloud workloads in a more environmentally responsible way.

But the green journey doesn’t begin and end with AWS. Everyone has a role to play:

Businesses: Choose AWS regions powered by renewable energy, optimize your cloud architecture for efficiency, and leverage tools like AWS CloudWatch for Sustainability to track your environmental impact.
Developers: Design green code, utilize serverless architectures, and advocate for sustainable cloud practices.
Individuals: Choose cloud-based services that prioritize sustainability, raise awareness about the environmental impact of technology, and support businesses that embrace green initiatives.

Who’s responsible for carbon emissions in the cloud?

Environmental sustainability is a shared responsibility between customers and AWS.

AWS is responsible for optimizing the sustainability of the cloud — delivering efficient, shared infrastructure, water stewardship, and sourcing renewable power.
Customers are responsible for sustainability in the cloud — optimizing workloads and resource utilization, and minimizing the total resources required to be deployed for your workloads.

Source: WRI/WBCSD Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard (PDF)

The AWS Well-Architected Framework organizes the carbon emissions related to cloud computing to the following scopes:

Scope 1: All direct emissions from the activities of an organization or under its control. For example, fuel combustion by data center backup generators.
Scope 2: Indirect emissions from electricity purchased and used to power data centers and other facilities. For example, emissions from commercial power generation.
Scope 3: All other indirect emissions from activities of an organization from sources it doesn’t control. AWS examples include emissions related to data center construction and the manufacture and transportation of IT hardware deployed in data centers.

AWS REINVENT 2023: Sustainability Showcase

I went to the showcase and saw some impressive demos, including a public framework created by Professional Services that can serve as a foundation for building a carbon data collection and analysis service for a customer.

The showcase featured a variety of interesting demos, demonstrating various applications of AWS services in achieving sustainability goals. Here are some of the key highlights:

1. Sustainability-focused use cases:

Wildfire remote detection and monitoring: Showcased how AWS AI and ML tools can analyze satellite imagery to detect wildfires early and predict their spread, enabling faster response and resource allocation.
Simulated ecological changes in Madagascar: Used geospatial and AI technologies to model the impact of climate change on the island’s ecosystem, aiding in conservation efforts.
Generative AI for ESG analysis: Demod how generative AI can help analyze massive amounts of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data to identify trends and inform sustainable decision-making.
Renewable energy assets monitoring: Demonstrated how AWS IoT and cloud-based solutions can optimize the management and performance of renewable energy assets, like solar and wind farms.

2. Custom hardware advancements:

AWS Inferentia and Trainium chips: These new processors for EC2 instances offer improved performance and energy efficiency, allowing customers to build sustainable workloads.

3. Customer examples:

FlexZero: A carbon management and disclosure platform built entirely on AWS, helping companies track their carbon footprint and make data-driven decisions to reduce it.
Adobe and SAP: Demonstrated their integrations with AWS services to improve sustainability practices within their own operations and offerings.

The Sustainability Showcase received a lot of positive attention from attendees, highlighting the growing importance of technology in addressing environmental challenges.

Some insightful sessions on Sustainability:

Related links:

Overall, AWS re: Invent 2023 demonstrated a clear commitment to sustainability and offered various tools and resources for users to build and run their cloud workloads in a more environmentally responsible way. With ambitious renewable energy targets and a growing suite of green products, AWS is charging forward. The question is no longer if the cloud can run sustainably — but how sustainably our cloud footprint can evolve.

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