A next-generation cloud sustainability dashboard 

In this article you read, 

• why transparent reporting on power consumption becomes a crucial factor in cloud usage,
• how T Cloud Public’s Sustainability Dashboard works
• and how its approach differentiates from other vendors’ approaches.

On February 23, T Cloud Public launched its Sustainability Dashboard — a major milestone in its sustainability journey. The dashboard enables customers to access usage-based power and emissions data derived from measured infrastructure consumption and standardized carbon accounting methodologies. It supports compliance requirements under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).

Sustainability has long been embedded in Deutsche Telekom Group’s guiding principles. As cloud usage grows — driven increasingly by AI workloads — so does the responsibility to understand and manage environmental impact in a transparent, methodologically sound, and operationally useful way.

Unlike dashboards based primarily on financial allocation logic or regional averages, this solution is built on measured infrastructure power consumption. The methodology is based on long-term infrastructure power measurements collected over more than one year to derive representative average power profiles for our cloud services. 

“The methodology is based on long-term infrastructure power measurements collected over more than one year to derive representative average power profiles for our cloud services”, explains German Santini, T Cloud Public’s sustainability engineer.

This approach enables power consumption and emissions to be attributed according to actual usage patterns instead of fixed assumptions. Customers can access the dashboard directly within their existing financial dashboard environment in their tenant. 

The relevance of this dashboard reflects a structural market shift. Although public debate around sustainability may have become quieter, regulatory pressure and procurement requirements have intensified. Sustainability criteria are now evaluated alongside security and compliance in cloud provider selection processes. Industry analyses show that reducing CO₂ emissions ranks among the top strategic priorities — second only to cost efficiency.  

In many tenders, carbon footprint transparency and power consumption reporting has become a decisive factor. Customers no longer ask whether emissions should be quantified; they ask whether the methodology is defensible and accessible on demand. The Sustainability Dashboard responds to that maturity shift. 

The dashboard is not limited to regulatory compliance. By making energy impact visible at workload level, it enables architectural optimization that was previously difficult to quantify in practice. For example, when comparing an older memory-optimized m4 instance (2xlarge.8) with a new-generation m9 equivalent, a customer reduced power consumption by 65 percent simply by migrating to the newer hardware generation. The reduction reflects improved hardware efficiency and higher infrastructure density. Under the applied carbon accounting methodology, lower power consumption results in proportionally lower attributed operational emissions. 

The dashboard also supports performance-versus-power decisions. Overprovisioning remains common in cloud environments. Engineers often choose larger instance types to ensure stability. With measured power data available, teams can compare alternative configurations — balancing performance, cost, and energy intensity. This moves sustainability from retrospective reporting into active architectural decision-making. 

Many large cloud providers offer sustainability dashboards based on aggregated regional averages. These tools support corporate-level reporting but often provide limited transparency into allocation logic or the impact of specific architectural decisions.

“Our dashboard is based on measured infrastructure power consumption at device level, combined with architecture-aware allocation models and region-specific carbon factors.” 

Electricity-related emissions are calculated using the market-based approach under the GHG Protocol, reflecting our 100 percent clean renewable energy commitments. Direct emissions from data center operations, including on-site energy generation, are accounted for at regional level. 

As Deutsche Telekom Group progresses toward group-wide carbon neutrality for its own operational emissions (scope 1 and scope 2), the methodology will also evolve. As operational emissions are reduced and neutralized, greater emphasis will shift toward embedded hardware infrastructure emissions. Instead of relying on high-level financial proxies, the model attributes energy consumption and emissions to individual services such as virtual machines, storage, and data traffic.

This granularity is intentional. It allows architects and developers to evaluate energy and emissions implications alongside cost and performance. “Our goal is to make sustainability an operational design parameter rather than a retrospective KPI,” Santini explains.

This is particularly relevant for regulated industries, organizations applying internal carbon pricing, and companies that must justify infrastructure decisions across sustainability, finance, and compliance functions simultaneously.

Environmental claims are increasingly scrutinized under EU regulation. Approaches based solely on averages or non-transparent allocation logic face growing skepticism. The methodology behind the Sustainability Dashboard is grounded in technical measurement, clearly defined system boundaries, and alignment with established standards including GHG Protocol and International Organization for Standardization (ISO 14067).

Compared to earlier estimation approaches, the new methodology improves both accuracy and actionability. It assigns the workload-driven share of infrastructure power consumption based on utilization, rather than allocating total installed capacity by default. As a result, reported values may differ from previous figures — particularly at tenant or service level.

The dashboard directly supports regulatory requirements under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Under CSRD: