Our company’s Sustainability journey:
How AWS Sustainability can help

Sustainability is the sixth pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Adopting a sustainability strategy and following the AWS Sustainability standards and best practices brings numerous benefits. However, navigating these standards can be challenging without expert help.

Working with an experienced AWS Partner can help you meet these standards and reap the benefits without disrupting your operations or compromising your security.

The principles of AWS Sustainability

Although moving out of locally managed data centers in favour of the cloud is generally beneficial for emissions and cost-effectiveness, using Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides the most benefits.

The company’s commitment to carbon emissions reduction has resulted in making Sustainability the sixth pillar of the Well-Architected Framework in December 2021. The Sustainability pillar integrates resource management, waste reduction, and environmental impact awareness into its development philosophy.

Benefits of AWS Sustainability

According to a 451 Research study commissioned by Amazon, moving away from standard enterprise infrastructure and toward AWS cloud-based solutions results in a 88% reduction in carbon emissions. AWS infrastructure is 3.6 times more energy-efficient than the average American locally-managed data center.

Even the top 10% of most energy-efficient organisations would benefit from a significant reduction (72% on average) in carbon emissions. Additionally, technological advances in renewable energies and the increasing prevalence of renewable energy solutions, such as solar farms and wind farms, indicate that carbon savings will only increase over time.

Amazon estimates that operations and infrastructure will be 100% renewable-powered by 2025 and reach net-zero emissions by 2040. This means that all companies using AWS will benefit from these sustainability efforts.

How to become AWS Sustainability compliant

Although Amazon’s efforts to improve the sustainability of its services provide passive benefits to all customers that have migrated to AWS, the customer also plays an active role under the principle of Shared Responsibility. While Amazon is responsible for the sustainability of the cloud’s infrastructure, the customer is responsible for using the services as sustainably and efficiently as possible.

Becoming compliant with AWS Sustainability standards is primarily about following a concept known as Energy-Proportional Computing: Resource usage awareness and optimisation, maximising the usage of existing instances and services, consolidating underused ones, and eliminating idle or unused services.

Work with an experienced AWS partner today

At WOLK Technology, your sustainability journey is also ours. Our team of Amazon Web Services experts can help you analyse your company’s AWS service usage, find inefficiencies and carbon-intensive services, and help you streamline your company’s energy consumption without reducing your workload capabilities or compromising security. Contact us today for more information.