Carbon Footprint Chart

Carbon footprint is the measurement of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions for a given entity. Turbonomic measures carbon footprint in grams.

Turbonomic collects energy-related data from hosts and VMs at 10-minute intervals, and then uses that data to calculate carbon footprint. When you set the scope to one or several hosts or VM discovered from supported targets, the data that Turbonomic calculated displays in the Carbon Footprint chart.

Carbon Footprint chart

The chart shows average and peak/low values over time. Use the selector at the bottom left section of the chart to change the time frame.

Note:

An empty chart could be the result of delayed discovery, target validation failure, unavailable data for the given time frame, or an unsupported entity (see the next section for a list of supported entities).

Turbonomic also relies on host power data for the supported targets. This data is mandatory for Energy and Carbon Footprint calculations.

Supported Entities

Data is available in the Carbon Footprint chart for hosts and VMs discovered via vCenter targets.

Carbon Footprint Calculation

The calculation for carbon footprint can be expressed as follows:

(Energy Consumption) * [(Power Usage Effectiveness) * (Carbon Intensity)] =
Carbon Footprint

Where:

  • Energy Consumption is the consumption data collected from the entity.

  • Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is a ratio that describes how efficiently a computer data center uses energy; specifically, how much energy is used by the computing equipment. PUE is the ratio of the total amount of energy used by a computer data center facility to the energy delivered to computing equipment. The closer PUE is to 1, the more efficient the computer data center.

  • Carbon Intensity (CI) is a measurement of how 'clean' electricity is. It refers to how many grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) are released to produce 1 watt-hour (Wh) of electricity. Electricity that is generated using fossil fuels is more carbon intensive, as the process by which it is generated creates CO2 emissions. Renewable energy sources, such as wind, hydro, or solar power produce next to no CO2 emissions, so their carbon intensity value is much lower and often zero.

By default, PUE is set to 1.5, while CI is set to 0.25 g/Wh. These values appear in the default policy for Data Center entities. You can modify these values directly for a global effect, or set specific values in custom automation policies for Data Centers.

For example, if energy consumption for a host is 50 Wh, carbon footprint will be calculated as follows:

(50) * [(1.5) * (.25)] = 18.75 grams of CO2e