OUTSCALE Unveils ‘Carbon Footprint,’ a Sovereign Service that Enables CIOs to Measure and Manage the Carbon Footprint of their Cloud Usage – Dassault Systèmes

Report on OUTSCALE’s Carbon Footprint Initiative and its Contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Introduction

On November 5, 2025, OUTSCALE, a brand of Dassault Systèmes, announced the launch of “Carbon Footprint,” a new feature designed to measure, analyze, and reduce the environmental impact of cloud services. This report analyzes the initiative’s alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in promoting responsible digital infrastructure and climate action.

Strategic Context: The Imperative for Sustainable Digital Infrastructure

The increasing reliance on cloud computing presents a significant challenge to global sustainability efforts due to the associated energy consumption of data centers. This initiative directly addresses this challenge. An IDC 2025 study highlights that cloud data centers can be significantly more efficient, emitting up to 5.1 times less CO₂ and demonstrating 1.9 times greater energy efficiency than on-premises infrastructure. OUTSCALE’s Carbon Footprint tool is positioned as a critical instrument for organizations to manage this transition responsibly.

Direct Contributions to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Carbon Footprint feature provides a tangible mechanism for organizations to advance several key SDGs:

• SDG 13: Climate Action: The tool’s primary function is to provide actionable data for reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with digital operations. By enabling precise measurement of their cloud carbon footprint, organizations can take concrete steps to mitigate their impact on climate change.
• SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure: This initiative represents a significant innovation in sustainable digital infrastructure. It equips businesses with the technology needed to build resilient, efficient, and environmentally responsible IT systems, fostering a more sustainable industrial framework.
• SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production: The feature promotes responsible consumption of digital resources. It transforms environmental data into a management tool, encouraging organizations to optimize their cloud usage and integrate sustainability into their production patterns and corporate reporting (ESG).
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities: By empowering businesses to lower their energy consumption and carbon emissions, the tool indirectly contributes to reducing the overall environmental footprint of urban and commercial centers where these organizations operate.

Functionality and Stakeholder Empowerment

The Carbon Footprint tool is integrated into the OUTSCALE Cockpit and public API within a SecNumCloud 3.2-qualified sovereign environment. It provides a detailed analysis of emissions from sources including electricity, hardware, maintenance, hosting, and networking. The tool is tailored to empower various stakeholders in achieving sustainability targets:

1. Executives: Gain a strategic management tool for addressing governance mandates and regulatory requirements related to environmental impact, aligning corporate strategy with SDG commitments.
2. IT and CSR Teams: Access actionable data visualizations and API integration to drive responsible digital strategy, monitor progress against ESG goals, and identify specific levers for emission reduction.
3. End Users: Develop a clear understanding of the carbon impact of their cloud service usage, enabling them to optimize digital practices in support of their organization’s broader sustainability objectives.

Conclusion

The launch of the Carbon Footprint feature marks a significant advancement in OUTSCALE’s commitment to combining security, sovereignty, and sustainability. As stated by CSR Manager Olivia Guiomar, the emphasis on “clarity, consistency, and traceability” provides organizations with a reliable tool to manage their environmental impact. This initiative serves as a pragmatic solution for advancing responsible digital intelligence and provides a clear pathway for businesses to contribute directly to the global climate agenda and the broader Sustainable Development Goals.

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

1. SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

   • The article focuses on innovation within the digital infrastructure industry. The “Carbon Footprint” tool is a technological innovation designed to make cloud computing infrastructure more sustainable. It discusses the energy efficiency of cloud data centers compared to on-premises infrastructure, directly relating to building resilient and sustainable infrastructure.

2. SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

   • The tool enables companies to monitor and manage their consumption of cloud services in a more responsible manner. By providing data on the carbon footprint, it encourages businesses to “adopt sustainable practices” and “integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle,” as mentioned by its utility for promoting ESG commitments.

3. SDG 13: Climate Action

   • This is the most directly addressed SDG. The entire purpose of the “Carbon Footprint” feature is to “measure, understand, and reduce the estimated carbon footprint of their cloud services.” The article explicitly links the tool to managing environmental impact and reducing CO₂ emissions, which are central to climate action.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

1. Target 9.4: Upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable

   • The article highlights that “cloud data centers emit up to 5.1 times less CO₂ than on-premises infrastructure, with 1.9 times greater energy efficiency.” The launch of the Carbon Footprint tool is a step towards upgrading digital infrastructure by providing companies with the means to adopt cleaner and more environmentally sound technologies and processes for their IT systems.

2. Target 12.6: Encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices and integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle

   • The article states that the tool helps companies “promote their ESG commitments” and provides executives with a “strategic management tool, providing a clear vision for addressing regulatory and governance issues.” This directly supports the integration of sustainability information (carbon footprint data) into corporate practices and reporting.

3. Target 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation

   • The tool is designed to build institutional capacity by providing “executives, IT and CSR teams, and end users” with “understandable data to manage their environmental impact.” It serves as an educational and awareness-raising mechanism within organizations, enabling them to “identify concrete levers for improving their carbon footprint” and thus strengthen their capacity for climate change mitigation.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

1. Indicator for Target 9.4: CO₂ emissions from digital infrastructure

   • The article directly implies this indicator by focusing on a tool that measures the “estimated carbon footprint of cloud services.” The comparison that “cloud data centers emit up to 5.1 times less CO₂” suggests that CO₂ emissions per unit of digital service is a key metric for measuring the sustainability of the infrastructure.

2. Indicator for Target 12.6: Integration of carbon footprint data in corporate reporting

   • The article implies this indicator by stating the tool helps companies “promote their ESG commitments.” The use of the tool’s data in official corporate sustainability or ESG reports would be a direct measure of progress towards this target. The tool provides “actionable data visualization” that can be integrated from a “documented and secure public API,” facilitating its inclusion in such reports.

3. Indicator for Target 13.3: Availability and use of tools for climate impact management

   • The existence and adoption of the “Carbon Footprint” tool itself serves as an indicator. The article describes it as a “clear and operational tool to drive their responsible digital strategy.” The number of companies or users utilizing this tool to understand and reduce their carbon impact would measure the increase in institutional capacity for climate mitigation.

4. Create a table with three columns titled ‘SDGs, Targets and Indicators” to present the findings from analyzing the article. In this table, list the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), their corresponding targets, and the specific indicators identified in the article.

Source: 3ds.com