Kaya for Computer Architects: Toward Sustainable Computer Systems

This article reformulates the well-known Kaya identity to understand computer systems’ impact on sustainability and its total carbon footprint. By making a distinction between embodied and operational carbon emissions, we are able to understand 1) how the global carbon footprint of computing is likely to scale in the future, and 2) what we, as computer architects, can do to reduce the environmental impact of computing. We conclude that computer architects should first and foremost design smaller chips; reducing lifetime energy consumption is of secondary importance, yet still significant.