Educating for a greener future: Saving the Earth one migration at a time with AWS

A thoughtful question we often hear from educational institutions considering cloud migration as part of their sustainability journey is, “If we move to the cloud, aren’t we just shifting our emissions elsewhere?” It’s an understandable concern, especially from institutions that have long played a role far beyond classrooms and lecture halls.

For decades, universities and colleges have served as civic anchors—shaping not only knowledge but also values, behaviors, and leadership across generations. So, it’s no surprise that sustainability has become a core part of their mission. Institutions entrusted with preparing the next generation are also uniquely positioned—and obligated—to help safeguard the planet they’ll inherit.

At Amazon Web Services (AWS), we share that concern. We believe we have a responsibility to act on climate change—starting by reducing carbon emissions across everything we do.

To understand how migrating to AWS can help educational institutions meet their sustainability goals, we first need to unpack the environmental impact of IT operations. That means examining the actual carbon math behind IT and where emissions really come from.

The carbon footprint of educational IT

In a typical educational institution, several factors contribute to the carbon footprint of IT systems. Two of the major contributors are the energy required to operate technology, and the emissions embedded in the manufacturing and transportation of IT hardware.

Operational emissions stem from powering end user computing devices, such as laptops and personal computers (PCs), and the infrastructure that supports them. This includes servers, networking equipment, and cooling systems operating 24/7 in on-premises data centers. The broader energy demands of campus buildings that house and support these digital services also add to the institution’s overall footprint.

In parallel, embodied carbon accounts for the emissions generated during the production and shipment of IT equipment.

To bring this into focus, consider the example of the University of Southampton. A 2024 study found that its IT environment—primarily 26,000 end user computing devices—was responsible for over 9 million kilograms of CO₂ equivalent (kgCO₂e) across their full lifecycle. That’s roughly equivalent to the emissions produced by an average car driving more than 54 million kilometers.

Even a single digital workload can have a measurable impact. In one real-world example, a university serving approximately 21,000 students required 17 dedicated servers to support its learning management system across production, testing, and development environments. These 17 servers alone were responsible for approximately 108,120 kgCO₂e over their lifecycle.

Now that we’ve outlined some of the key contributors to IT-related emissions, let’s explore how migrating to AWS can help reduce—and in some cases, even eliminate—those impacts.

Cleaner power, smarter infrastructure

All of the electricity consumed by Amazon’s operations, including its data centers, was matched with 100 percent renewable energy in 2023. Beyond clean energy, AWS also designs its own energy-efficient chips like AWS Graviton Processors and AWS Trainium chips, which outperform standard chips in both performance and power consumption. Its latest data center designs deliver 12 percent more compute capacity per site, and even backup generators now run on renewable diesel, cutting associated emissions by up to 90 percent.

A 2023 study by Accenture and AWS found that running optimized workloads on AWS infrastructure is up to 4.1 times more energy efficient than typical on-premises data centers and can reduce the carbon footprint of workloads by as much as 99 percent.

Efficient cooling and water stewardship

On average, 40 percent of a modern data center’s total energy use goes to cooling alone. AWS addresses this challenge through a combination of advanced technologies designed to minimize both energy and water consumption. Its data centers use liquid cooling, evaporative cooling systems, and where conditions allow, free-air cooling. Together, these technologies can reduce mechanical energy consumption by up to 46 percent during peak periods.

Beyond energy, AWS is committed to water stewardship. As of 2023, 24 AWS data centers globally are cooled using recycled water. In some locations, up to 90 percent of the water used for cooling is reclaimed and reused—supporting the AWS goal to be water positive by 2030, returning more water to communities than it uses.

Tackling the embedded carbon of hardware

Emissions from manufacturing and shipping servers—known as embedded carbon—make up a significant portion of a data center’s environmental footprint.

AWS addresses this challenge through its re:Cycle Reverse Logistics hubs, which are designed to recover and extend the life of data center hardware. In 2024, more than 99 percent of all securely decommissioned AWS racks were diverted from landfills instead being reused internally, sold into the secondary market, or recycled responsibly.

These hubs have enabled AWS to source 13 percent of its spare parts from its own reuse inventory, significantly reducing the need for new manufacturing.

AWS can also help extend the life of campus devices. Services such as Amazon WorkSpaces, Amazon AppStream 2.0, and the Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client enable institutions to extend the usable life of existing campus devices beyond the typical 4–5 year refresh cycle by offloading compute-intensive tasks to the cloud. In many cases, devices can be made to last up to 7 years or more. Together, these services deliver virtual desktops and streamed applications to a wide range of devices, including low-power systems with minimal local processing capabilities.

By extending the lifespan of hardware and repurposing at scale, AWS cuts waste generation, reduces raw material consumption, and lowers carbon emissions across its global supply chain—helping customers reduce their footprint from the hardware up.

Getting started with a sustainable cloud migration

AWS provides a set of strategies, tools, and best practices to guide your migration journey. These resources help you build your business case, prepare your organization, and confidently migrate and modernize your workloads.

For educational institutions prioritizing sustainability, it’s important to weave sustainability goals into that journey from the very beginning. Here are key steps to keep in mind as you move forward:

Assess sustainability from the start – Use Migration Evaluator, a migration assessment service, to build a business case for migrating to AWS. You can perform a sustainability analysis that estimates carbon emission reductions when your workloads run on AWS.
Measure, migrate, optimize – Effective sustainability planning starts with data. Solutions like Carbon Accounting on AWS and Carbon Data Lake on AWS help institutions track emissions across operations, portfolios, and value chains. They streamline data collection, simplify regulatory reporting, and generate insights that drive climate strategy. For workloads running on AWS, the Customer Carbon Footprint Tool offers a built-in way to monitor emissions over time—helping assess the climate impact of your cloud architecture. To build energy-efficient, low-emission workloads from day one, institutions can also use the AWS Well-Architected Framework – Sustainability Pillar, which provides practical guidance for optimizing designs with environmental impact in mind.
Innovate with impact – With cloud infrastructure in place, you can drive campus-wide innovation using solutions like Smart and Sustainable Buildings on AWS to monitor energy consumption, improve space utilization, and enhance operational efficiency across campus facilities

Conclusion: A greener future starts with action

Migrating to AWS isn’t just about modernizing infrastructure—it’s a chance to make real progress toward sustainability. By reducing emissions, extending device lifecycles, and optimizing operations, educational institutions can align their digital strategy with their climate commitments.

Around the world, education systems are being called to lead by example—to meet net-zero targets, cut emissions from public infrastructure, and report transparently on environmental progress. In the UK, for instance, the Department for Education’s climate strategy aims for the sector to lead on sustainability by 2030

What’s next?

Start by measuring your current IT carbon footprint. Understand where you are. And when you’re ready, reach out to AWS experts to begin your migration journey with sustainability goals at the core.

Because building a greener future doesn’t start somewhere else. It starts with us—and the choices we make today.

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