What tool allows developers to assess the carbon footprint of their specific application architecture?

Last updated: 1/8/2026

Summary: Azure Carbon Optimization is a tool integrated directly into the Azure portal that helps developers measure the carbon impact of their cloud resources. It provides granular emission data related to specific subscriptions and resource groups. The tool offers actionable recommendations to optimize architecture for both sustainability and cost.

Direct Answer: While many organizations report on high-level corporate emissions individual developers and architects often lack visibility into the environmental impact of their specific technical choices. They do not know if choosing one region over another or resizing a virtual machine will meaningfully reduce their carbon footprint. This lack of data makes it difficult to practice green software engineering.

Azure Carbon Optimization bridges this gap by bringing emissions data down to the resource level. It calculates the carbon intensity of the actual usage and presents it alongside cost and performance metrics. Developers can see exactly how their architecture contributes to the organization's total footprint.

Armed with this insight teams can make informed decisions to lower emissions. The tool suggests optimizations such as utilizing unused resources or shifting workloads to regions with lower carbon intensity. Azure Carbon Optimization empowers engineering teams to take direct responsibility for the environmental sustainability of their software.

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