Systems and methods for determining software carbon emissions

Inventors: Yuhang Ma (Jersey City, NJ); Vinay Garg (Uttam Nagar, IN); Christopher Matthew Brozyna (Saint Louis, MO); Nitasha Nair (Chicago, IL); Ashley Elisabeth Degen (Denver, CO); Leah Renee Ellis-Clemons (Minneapolis, MN); Kathryn Costigan Heyel (Wildwood, MO); Brendan Gerard Walsh (New York, NY); Wesley Warren Palmer (Philadelphia, PA); Harcharan Singh Kabbay (Wildwood, MO)

Assignee: WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY HOLDING CO., LLC

G06Q30/018

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Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 12700008
App. No.: 18/807,259
Granted: Aug 4, 2026
Kind: B2

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Abstract

A method or system that includes determining a functional boundary for a software application; determining a functional unit for the software application; receiving an energy consumption measurement for the software application; receiving a location-based marginal carbon emissions measurement for the software application; determining a hardware emissions measurement for the software application; determining a lifespan emissions measurement for the software application; and determining a software carbon emissions measurement for the software application based at least on the functional boundary, the functional unit, the energy consumption measurement, the location-based marginal carbon emissions measurement, the hardware emissions measurement, or the lifespan emissions measurement. Other embodiments are described.

Claims (90)

1 . A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computing instructions that, when run on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

determining a functional boundary for a software application;

determining a functional unit (U) for the software application;

determining an expected lifespan (L) for the software application;

determining a time (T) that hardware is reserved for use by the software application;

determining a proportion (F) of total available resources of the hardware reserved for use by the software application;

collecting an energy consumption measurement (E) per unit of time for the software application from a Power Distribution Unit (PDU) sensor and modifying the energy consumption measurement based on a Central Processing Unit (CPU) usage measurement to weigh the energy consumption measurement by hardware utilization;

collecting a location-based marginal carbon emissions measurement (l) for the software application;

determining a total embodied emissions(S), comprising one or more of: a hardware emissions measurement for the software application, or

a lifespan emissions measurement for the software application; and

determining a software carbon emissions measurement for the software application using an equation comprising:

SCE

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2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the functional boundary for the software application further comprises:

determining one or more of containerization, virtualization, or orchestration for an implementation of the software application; and

determining one or more components to analyze from one or more of: a data center, a server rack, a server, hardware, a mobile device, or a manufacturing process.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the functional unit for the software application further comprises determining an incremental unit from one or more of: adding a new user, one additional application programing interface (API) call, or an individual machine learning job, wherein the incremental unit corresponds to the functional unit and identifies a function of increase for the software carbon emissions measurement.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein collecting the location-based marginal carbon emissions measurement for the software application further comprises:

identifying a location of a power source for the software application;

determining a fuel measurement for the power source; and

determining the location-based marginal carbon emissions measurement for the software application based on the fuel measurement.

5 . The system of claim 4 , further comprising converting the fuel measurement for the power source.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the total embodied emissions(S) for the software application further comprises:

identifying an equipment manufacturer for hardware executing the software application; and

determining the hardware emissions measurement for the software application based on the equipment manufacturer.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the total embodied emissions(S) for the software application further comprises determining a period of time to generate the software application.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the functional unit (U) for the software application further comprises:

determining a unit of measurement represented by a subsequent carbon emissions measurement.

9 . A method comprising: