Editor’s note
Welcome to the last Digital Sustainability Newsletter of 2025. We’ve had a wave of new subscribers over the past few weeks – welcome aboard! If you’re not yet subscribed and would like future editions delivered to your inbox, do sign up via our DIGITAL-SUSTAINABILITY Jiscmail list. It’s now a closed list so you’ll only hear from us once a month with the newsletter and no spam, we promise.
Whilst curating this month’s newsletter, I was struck by two distinct themes running through the news headlines. On one side, we see growing tensions between digital infrastructure and environmental limits, with record power sector emissions being reported despite renewable energy growth, opposition to water-hungry data centres in drought zones, and research showing tech companies are unlikely to meet net-zero goals without heavy reliance on offsets. On the other, we see real innovation: the world’s first commercial liquid air energy storage facility set to open in the UK next year, news of China’s wind-powered underwater data centres, and digital tools helping us to better visualise the effects of air pollution. I think this duality is a reminder that the same sector driving environmental pressures also has the potential to be part of the solution when used responsibly.
We hope you enjoy this final edition of 2025. Wishing you a restful festive break when it comes and we’ll see you in the new year for the next edition.
— Cal Innes, Digital Sustainability Specialist, Jisc (cal.innes@jisc.ac.uk)
Digital Sustainability News
Here are this month’s top news stories. Click the headlines below to read the full story:
World’s first commercial liquid air energy storage facility set to open in UK in 2026
Highview Power is building the world’s first commercial-scale liquid air energy storage plant near Manchester, which will store 300 megawatt-hours of electricity by compressing and cooling air until it becomes liquid, then releasing the energy by evaporating it to drive turbines.
Leaked data reveals Amazon operates far more data centres than previous industry estimates
Leaked internal documents show Amazon operated 924 data centres across more than 50 countries in 2023, roughly double the number recorded in previous industry estimates, raising concerns about the company’s energy consumption and environmental impact as it expands its cloud computing and AI services. Amazon defends its record by noting it is the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for five consecutive years.
EU plans to triple data centre capacity raise water scarcity concerns in southern Europe
The European Union’s ambition to at least triple its data centre capacity over the next five to seven years is sparking concern about water consumption in regions already facing severe water stress, with major tech companies building facilities in drought-prone areas of Spain and Greece.
China launches wind-powered underwater data centre off Shanghai coast
Chinese company HiCloud has inaugurated a demonstration underwater data centre powered by offshore wind near Shanghai, and signed agreements with industrial partners to develop a 500MW subsea data centre facility, though timescales and location for the larger project have not been disclosed.
AWS expands Customer Carbon Footprint Tool to include Scope 3 emissions
Amazon Web Services has updated its Customer Carbon Footprint Tool to include Scope 3 emissions data covering IT hardware manufacturing, building construction and fuel-related activities, giving customers a more comprehensive view of the carbon footprint associated with their cloud usage.
French court convicts TotalEnergies of greenwashing over carbon neutrality claims
A Paris court has ruled that oil and gas company TotalEnergies engaged in misleading commercial practices by advertising carbon neutrality goals while continuing to expand fossil fuel production, in what environmental groups say is the first such conviction against a major oil company worldwide.
ITU and tech industry partners launch open-access repository for sustainable software practices
The International Telecommunication Union has partnered with technology companies including HSBC, Capgemini and Cognizant to launch a free online repository consolidating guidance on sustainable software development, aimed at helping developers and organisations reduce the environmental impact of their digital systems.
UBS predicts AI data centre power demand will drive global energy storage boom
Investment bank UBS Securities forecasts that growing power demand from AI data centres in the United States will trigger a boom in energy storage over the next five years, with global demand expected to rise 40% in 2026 as more batteries are needed to balance intermittent renewable generation.
Global nonprofit Climate TRACE has released an interactive platform that visualises in real time how PM2.5 pollution from power plants, refineries, ports and mines spreads into more than 2,500 urban areas worldwide, with former US Vice President Al Gore calling on policymakers to act on the findings.
MIT and Adobe develop AI tool to help designers create reusable, transformable clothing
Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and AI Lab have partnered with Adobe to create Refashion, an AI-powered design tool that deconstructs clothing into modular components, allowing designers and consumers to create adaptable garments that can be resized, restyled or transformed to extend their lifespan.
Resource corner
Each month, we share a digital sustainability report, tool, or resource that we think is worth your time.
Framework for Sustainable High-Performance Computing in Research and Artificial Intelligence
This month’s featured resource is a fantastic framework written and researched by Azra Zulić, under the supervision of Duuk Batem from SURF, offering practical guidance for making high-performance computing more sustainable.
The report tackles a question that many in the research community are grappling with: how do we justify using resource-intensive computing infrastructure in an era of man-made climate change? Rather than treating this as an either/or dilemma, the framework proposes a balanced approach that acknowledges HPC’s material footprint while providing concrete tools for mitigation.
What makes this framework particularly useful is its dual focus on technical and behavioural tools. It introduces software solutions like CodeCarbon for tracking emissions and EAR for energy optimisation, alongside cultural interventions such as prioritising sustainable research and training users in environmental awareness. The framework also proposes adding “technological sustainability” as a fourth pillar alongside the traditional environmental, economic, and social dimensions.
You can download the full report for free here.
Academic papers
Here is a summary of our favourite examples of recent academic research on the environmental impacts of digital technologies:
A systematic map of machine learning for urban climate change mitigation
Authors: Marie Josefine Hintz, Nikola Milojevic-Dupont, Felix Creutzig, Tim Repke, Lynn H. Kaack
Summary: This breakthrough study systematically maps 2,300 peer-reviewed articles from 1994 to 2024, offering the most comprehensive picture yet of how machine learning is being applied to urban climate mitigation. The authors find that while research focuses on high-impact areas, data availability and commercial interests risk perpetuating geographic inequities, as well as providing valuable recommendations for more impactful deployment.
Digital innovation and green productivity gap
Authors: Yarong Sun, Lijun Hu, Fang He, Lei Chen
Summary: This study asks why increases in green technology patents often fail to translate into real-world productivity improvements. Analysing data from 287 cities over 13 years, they find that digital innovation helps close this gap by improving energy efficiency, upgrading industries and strengthening environmental enforcement. The findings suggest that simply developing green technologies isn’t enough, and that digital tools are needed to turn those innovations into tangible economic and environmental benefits.
Authors: Rui Lu, Dan Wang
Summary: As data centres raise their operating temperatures to save energy the new problem emerges of GPUs running AI workloads overheating and automatically slowing down to protect themselves. This study finds that existing job schedulers can increase the risk of this “thermal throttling” by 10 times, causing performance drops of up to 34%. The researchers develop a new thermal-aware scheduler called TAWS that intelligently manages GPU workloads, improving throughput by up to 41% even at ambient temperatures of 41°C.
Authors: Tianqi Xiao, Francesco Fuso Nerini, H. Damon Matthews, Massimo Tavoni, Fengqi You
Summary: This comprehensive study projects that US AI server expansion could consume 731–1,125 million cubic metres of water and generate 24–44 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent annually by 2030. The researchers find that AI companies are unlikely to meet their net-zero goals without heavy reliance on carbon offsets and water restoration.
Digital sustainability articles
Now for this month’s best thought pieces and in-depth articles exploring the debates shaping digital sustainability practice. Click the title to read the full article:
How digital solutions help the environment
In an article for Sustainability Magazine, Lucy Potter profiles Adobe’s environmental initiatives as part of the publication’s ranking of the world’s most sustainable companies, highlighting how the software firm’s shift to cloud-based products has reduced physical waste and emissions from manufacturing and distribution.
Shaolei Ren of the University of California, Riverside, and Amy Luers of Microsoft argue in a piece for the OECD AI Policy Observatory that the water footprint of AI extends far beyond data centre cooling, with indirect water consumption from electricity generation accounting for 80% or more of total use in many regions.
Cloud computing’s real-world environmental impact
Mary K. Pratt, writing for TechTarget, examines the often-overlooked environmental costs of cloud computing, arguing that while cloud infrastructure is more efficient than on-premises data centres, its rapidly growing energy, water and land consumption demands greater scrutiny from business leaders.
How IBM, Nokia and Amazon supercharge sustainability with data
James Darley, in Sustainability Magazine, examines how three major technology companies are using AI and data analytics to measure and reduce their environmental impact, highlighting the different approaches each firm takes to embedding sustainability into their operations and products.
Building sustainable data centres: innovations in materials and energy use
Atif Suhail provides a comprehensive overview for AZoCleantech of how engineers are tackling data centre sustainability through advanced cooling technologies, rare earth recycling, circular design principles and AI-driven energy management, as the sector faces pressure to align with net-zero ambitions.
Organisations facing sustainability challenge amid AI ambitions
Stephen Withers reports for Computer Weekly on warnings from Cisco and NTT Data executives that businesses pursuing AI adoption are hitting a sustainability bottleneck, with legacy infrastructure and rising energy costs creating urgent challenges that require immediate attention.
DevGreenOps: How to design sustainable digital services
In a talk covered by Ben Linders for InfoQ, software consultant Jochen Joswig introduces DevGreenOps, an extension of DevOps that integrates environmental sustainability into every stage of the software development lifecycle, from design through to operations.
How businesses can lead the digital sustainability shift
In a piece for Forbes, Neil Henderson, CEO of browser company Shift, argues that the carbon cost of everyday digital activities is an overlooked aspect of the climate crisis that businesses must now address as a core strategy rather than a side project.
Beyond compliance: How sustainable technology creates value
Oliver Cronk, writing on the Scott Logic blog, challenges the view that sustainability is merely a compliance burden, arguing instead that companies embedding environmental thinking into their operations are discovering competitive advantages, cost savings and new revenue streams that traditional financial analysis overlooks.
Performance and sustainability: Concepts applied to digital products
Adriano Enache, a senior front-end developer writing on LinkedIn, argues that the tech industry has sacrificed code quality and performance in favour of speed to market, and that optimising digital products for efficiency is both an environmental imperative and a business opportunity that reduces costs and improves user experience.
Sustainability at Jisc
And finally, here’s a roundup of some of the things we’ve been working on here at Jisc:
Social Value Impact Statement 2024/25
We’re excited to share Jisc’s first Social Value Impact Statement for 2024/25!
This marks an important step in our journey to understand and amplify the positive impact we create.
Our work already contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and now we’re taking it further by measuring and reporting social value in a meaningful way.
Using the Social Value TOM system, we’ll build on what we have today – developing metrics that give us better visibility, stronger measurement, and clearer insights. Over time, these will evolve and grow, helping us demonstrate the difference we make.
Stay Connected with Jisc Procurement & Supplier Management – Sign up for our regular digital update
We’re excited to invite you to subscribe to a new digital update from the Jisc Procurement and Supplier Management team, designed specifically for procurement professionals across HE and FE institutions.
Each edition will bring you:
- Key updates on sector-wide digital technology procurement frameworks and dynamic markets
- Insights into Jisc-negotiated content and software agreements which meet the needs of the sector and are available through Jisc’s platform
- Opportunities to collaborate and share good practices.
- News on upcoming events and webinars
Whether you’re looking to stay informed, get involved, or simply keep a finger on the pulse of procurement in education, this update is tailored for the procurement professionals in the tertiary education sector.
Interested in joining the digital update list?
Just click https://emails.jisc.ac.uk/k/Jisc/active_procurement_sign_up to sign up and be part of the conversation.
Driving Digital Sustainability Workshops
Following on from the success of this year’s workshops, we’re pleased to announce three new dates for 2026. These two-hour online sessions equip participants with practical tools and strategies to reduce their institution’s environmental footprint while identifying opportunities for cost savings. Through interactive presentations and collaborative activities, attendees will gain concrete actions to integrate into their sustainability plans. Ideal for IT managers, sustainability professionals and senior leaders in HE and FE. Sessions run in January, April and July – book your place here.
Get Involved
We want to hear from you! Share your comments, suggestions, and digital sustainability highlights. Contact our Subject Specialist for Digital Sustainability, Cal Innes, at cal.innes@jisc.ac.uk.
And don’t forget to subscribe to our DIGITAL-SUSTAINABILITY JiscMail mailing list for future editions of the Digital Sustainability Newsletter.
