I've been looking into carbon offsetting for my AWS services and found that my usage over the past 12 months generates about 0.027 MTCO2e. I have one low-use EC2 server along with some S3 storage that adds hundreds of files monthly, and my AWS bill typically runs around £150 each month. I want to tell my clients that we've offset their carbon usage via AWS, but I'm quite puzzled because it seems like purchasing carbon credits would cost around £1 million per year. That's way more than my revenue! Am I misunderstanding something here?
3 Answers
Honestly, this whole carbon credit thing is a bit sketchy. CO2 is essential for life, and a lot of this fixation feels like a scam. But if you’re trying to go down this route, make sure to get accurate info and maybe challenge the numbers you're seeing!
Yeah, something definitely seems off with your numbers. 0.027 MTCO2e represents a very tiny amount, and buying credits for it should cost roughly between $1 to $5, depending on the market. You might have been referencing a price for a much larger unit or market. What source were you looking at for the pricing?
You're looking at a pretty small carbon footprint here; 0.027 MTCO2e is quite minimal! The cost for carbon credits for such a small amount should be just a few bucks total, not millions. Where did you get that price from? I think there might be a misunderstanding about the metrics — MT doesn’t mean million tons!
Exactly! I think there’s a mix-up with the unit too. It's worth checking again.