News

NVIDIA Achieves 100% Renewable Energy in 2025

NVIDIA, a global leader in technology and artificial intelligence, announced that it reached its goal of operating 100% on renewable electricity across its offices and data centers in fiscal year 2025 (FY25). Despite this milestone, experts point out that the environmental impact of this achievement is limited, since about 98% of the company’s carbon emissions are outside its direct control, concentrated in what is known as Scope 3 — covering the manufacturing and use of its products.

The announcement comes amid the exponential growth in demand for accelerated computing driven by IA, which has significantly increased global energy consumption. For ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) analysts, the major challenge for NVIDIA (and other big techs) is to decouple revenue growth from the rise in greenhouse gas emissions.

“The 100% renewable goal is relevant for brand reputation, but it has low environmental materiality” warns an excerpt from the company’s climate analysis report. “The real impact lies in the chips-the amount of energy they consume when used by clients like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.”

More Efficient Chips as the Answer to AI’s Energy Bottleneck

In response to this challenge, NVIDIA has been betting on the energy efficiency of its products as the main lever for sustainability. Its new chip architecture, called Blackwell, promises up to 25x higher energy efficiency in running large language models (LLMs) compared to the previous generation.

This improvement is not only environmental but also economic and strategic. AI-powered data centers are consuming between 100 and 200 MW per year each, comparable to entire industrial plants, creating a global energy bottleneck. Making chips more efficient is essential to sustain the continued expansion on AI.

Clean Energy: “100% Renewable” Doesn’t Mean 100% Clean

NVIDIA’s renewable electricity goal, though commendable, faces questions about its climate integrity. The company reportedly relied mainly on Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) with annual matching—a practice that, according to experts, does not guarantee that the energy consumed is clean at the time it’s used.

Companies like Google and Microsoft are moving toward a stricter model: 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy (CFE), which requires clean energy consumption to match generation in both time and location.

Scope 3: NVIDIA’s Achilles’ Heel in Sustainability

The vast majority of NVIDIA’s carbon footprint—around 6.9 million tons of CO₂ in 2025—comes from Scope 3 emissions. These include supply chain emissions (such as chip manufacturing) and, most notably, product use emissions.

The company reports progress in supplier engagement, with over 80% of Category 1 emissions already covered by reduction targets. However, the challenge is structural: as a fabless company (one without its own manufacturing facilities), NVIDIA relies on third parties to reduce its overall carbon footprint.

Client Pressure Could Accelerate the Transition

NVIDIA’s key clients—such as Google, AWS, and Microsoft—are under increasing pressure to meet their own climate goals and are investing billions in clean energy. This regulatory and reputational pressure will likely cascade down the supply chain, demanding higher decarbonization standards from suppliers.

If NVIDIA fails to align with the 24/7 CFE model and to demonstrate third-party validation of its efficiency claims, it may face competitive and credibility risks, analysts warn.

Conclusion: Operational Wins, but Real Challenges in the Product Itself

Reaching 100% renewable energy for operations marks an important milestone for NVIDIA, but it falls short of solving its biggest environmental challenges. The company’s true sustainability will depend on the energy efficiency of its chips and its ability to drive transformation across its value chain.

For ESG-minded investors and professionals, the message is clear: sustainable innovation must go beyond rhetoric—it must reach the core of the business.

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Opinion

Green IoT: When Environmental Monitoring Also Needs To Be Sustainable

There’s an unsettling irony in using sensors to protect the environment while those same devices contribute to its degradation.

It’s within this tension that the concept of Green IoT emerges — a necessary response to the unchecked growth of technology disconnected from its own ecological footprint.

The Contradiction Can’t Be Ignored

The promise of the Internet of Things (IoT) is clear: efficiency, automation, and data that transform resource management. Yet, the tech sector is already projected to account for up to 14% of global CO₂ emissions by 2040. Ignoring this reality means continuing to treat innovation as if it were consequence-free.

IoT alone isn’t enough. It must be green by design — energy-efficient, built to last, conceived for reuse, or capable of returning to nature without harming it.

Self-Sustaining Sensors: Solution or Utopia?

Energy Harvesting (EH) technology, which converts ambient energy (solar, vibrational, or thermal) into electricity, is often marketed as a miracle solution. But the reality is harsher: harvested energy is weak, inconsistent, and requires precise engineering to make sense at scale.

Devices like the LTC2588-1, which consume only one nanoamp at rest, mark important progress. Yet even the most efficient electronics will be useless if not integrated into equally conscious systems — lightweight protocols, on-demand communication, and circuits that spend more time asleep than active.

Here, sustainability is a systemic equation.

Sustainability Is About More Than Energy

If the conversation focuses only on energy consumption, it’s incomplete. The most efficient sensors in the world — if disposable and non-recyclable — merely replace one problem with another.

This flaw becomes especially visible in the field. Precision agriculture, increasingly dependent on disposable sensors, may be creating a new wave of low-visibility e-waste. The solution lies in developing truly biodegradable materials — not just green marketing claims.

Artificial Intelligence Is Not Optional — It’s Essential

The path toward viable Green IoT depends on intelligent automation. Low-power systems require a digital brain to deal with the unpredictability of their own energy sources. Stable operation is impossible without algorithms capable of making real-time decisions about when to measure, when to transmit, and when to simply wait.

Machine learning models are already helping reduce data center energy consumption by up to 30%. The same logic must extend to every sensor in the field.

Good Technology Is Measured by Its Impact

There are inspiring examples. In São Paulo, air-quality sensors inform citizens in real time. In Rio de Janeiro, sensors help optimize public lighting. In agriculture, a 70% reduction in water consumption shows that when technology is applied wisely, it gives back environmental value — not just data.

But these are exceptions. The rule remains an ocean of poorly optimized sensors, without end-of-life plans, operating under a linear logic: use, collect, discard.

Sustainability Is Not an Add-On — It’s a Prerequisite

There’s a recurring trap in the tech industry: treating sustainability as something that can be added later — a “plus” or “feature”.

That mindset doesn’t hold up.

Green IoT is not a trend — it’s an ethical and technical imperative. Energy neutrality (ENO), circular materials, and modular hardware design are not innovations; they’re the minimum conditions for operating in a finite world.

Conclusion

If environmental IoT isn’t designed to be sustainable, it loses its purpose. Monitoring the planet while generating more waste, consuming excessive energy, or ignoring device end-of-life is simply replacing one problem with another.

Truly sustainable projects don’t just measure impact — they prevent it.