In a move to enhance its sustainability efforts, OVHcloud has unveiled an updated version of its Environmental Impact Tracker. This tool allows users to measure and track the emissions associated with their cloud usage, providing more comprehensive insights into their environmental impact. The latest version builds upon the previous carbon calculator, expanding its capabilities to cover a broader range of cloud services and introducing a wider scope of environmental metrics beyond just carbon emissions.
Currently, the tracker supports OVHcloud’s Baremetal, Hosted Private Cloud, and Public Cloud Compute products, with plans to include Public Cloud Storage and Web Hosting in the near future. The updated tool incorporates factors like service usage variations and infrastructure types, improving its accuracy in assessing emissions.
One notable aspect of the tracker is its ability to cover emissions across all three scopes of environmental impact. It includes data from manufacturing, day-to-day operations, energy usage, and hardware production. This ensures that users can understand not only the emissions from electricity consumption but also the environmental footprint associated with building and maintaining the infrastructure itself.
A third-party review conducted by IJO, a digital responsibility firm, confirmed that the tracker’s methodology is transparent and aligned with current environmental practices.
New Features and Data Insights
The updated tracker introduces several key changes that enhance its usefulness. One significant update is the method of calculating emissions during cloud service usage. The tool now combines average electricity data from specific countries with supplier-specific data, allowing users to receive location-based reporting for a more precise understanding of their impact.
Additionally, the tracker now accounts for emissions related to the use of reused or refurbished hardware. It provides a breakdown of how reconditioning components affects the overall environmental footprint, offering a more detailed view of the sustainability of hardware usage.
Looking ahead, OVHcloud plans to incorporate additional environmental indicators such as water consumption, land impact, and resource use. These new metrics will give users a more holistic view of their infrastructure’s impact, beyond just emissions.
OVHcloud envisions these updates as a means to provide more actionable data for users. By understanding their environmental costs in greater detail, businesses can make more informed decisions about how to build and operate their cloud infrastructure, potentially adjusting their practices to reduce their environmental impact.
OVHcloud’s Sustainability Commitment
The rollout of this updated tool is part of OVHcloud’s ongoing efforts to provide more measurable data on environmental performance. The company has long been committed to sustainability, and with this tracker, it aims to give customers the tools to better understand and manage their environmental impact.
In early 2025, OVHcloud was ranked in the top 16% of companies in its sector by S&P Global Ratings. This ranking, which considers factors such as energy consumption and environmental policies, reflects the company’s commitment to sustainable practices.
OVHcloud’s approach to sustainability includes the design of its own data centers and servers, as well as the implementation of water-cooling systems to reduce energy usage. These efforts contribute to lower power and water usage scores (PUE and WUE) compared to industry averages.
Grégory Lebourg, Global Environmental Director at OVHcloud, emphasized that tracking emissions is now an essential part of cloud infrastructure management. “We support our customers in understanding and controlling their impact,” he said. “That’s why we continue to enhance the Environmental Impact Tracker.”
The company plans to release more updates in the coming months, with additional metrics and support for more cloud products on the horizon.
