An Overview of the Tailpipe Methodology

Tailpipe calculates the kilograms of CO₂e produced from the organization’s use of cloud computing using the following formula: 

Total Emissions = Embodied Emissions + Operational Emissions

Embodied emissions are calculated as:

(((CPU + RAM + SSD + HDD + Motherboard + Power Supply Units + Assembly + Enclosure + Network Storage + Switches) * Disposal) * Time Share * Resource Share)

Operational emissions are calculated as:

((((Instance + Network Storage + Intra-Region Data Transfer + Intra-Region Non-Instance Networking) * PUE) + (Inter-Region Data Transfer + External Data Transfer + Inter-Region Non-Instance Networking + External Non-Instance Networking)) * Carbon Intensity * Power Transmission Losses)   

Where: 

• • Instance = (Processors + Accelerators + Memory + Onboard Storage + Motherboard + Network Interface Cards) * Instance Power Supply Efficiency Factor
  • Network Storage = ((Power Draw of Provider Network Storage * GB of Network Storage) * Hours of Utilization) * Network Storage Power Supply Efficiency Factor

For more detail, view Tailpipe’s worked examples:

• Operational Emissions Worked Example 
• Embodied Emissions Worked Example