11. Outputs and Interpretation
Primary outputs, intended use, and interpretation guidance.
11.1 Primary Outputs
The methodology produces the following metrics for each unit of cloud usage:
- Total electricity usage, including both IT equipment and facility overhead, in kWh
- Usage Emissions in tonnes CO₂e
- Embodied Emissions in tonnes CO₂e
- IT cooling water consumption, in litres
- Electricity generation water consumption, in litres
11.2 Intended Use
These outputs are intended to support organisational sustainability reporting under frameworks such as CSRD, SECR, and SEC climate disclosure; Scope 3 emissions measurement; cloud procurement decisions; cloud region and service selection; reduction target setting; and comparative analysis of environmental impact across cloud providers, regions, and services.
11.3 Interpretation Guidance
Outputs are estimates calculated from billing data, published hardware specifications, and publicly available environmental data, and reflect the best available information at the time of calculation. Actual consumption and emissions in production cloud environments may vary.
Usage Emissions are reported on a location-based basis in accordance with the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance and should be interpreted accordingly.