Our Vision

Decarbonize Compute, Decarbonize the World

The New Compute Imperative

The climate crisis is one of humanity's greatest challenges. As the IPCC signaled in its Sixth Assessment Report, we are at Code Red for humanity. It is indisputable that we are negatively impacting the planet – and urgent action is required. We must reach net-zero carbon by 2050 or face catastrophic climate change¹.

We believe in the power of technology to build a better world for everyone, driving down emissions by unlocking efficiencies and reducing global energy consumption.The World Economic Forum estimates that digital solutions could reduce emissions by 15% by 2030² by fine-tuning existing activities and replacing traditional solutions with intelligent ones. Reducing the environmental impact of the underlying technology, however, is critical. Connectivity cannot come at the expense of the planet.

Technology needs to be an integral part of national climate plans."

United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa

Net Zero Goals The tension between technology as a solution to our environmental problems and an exacerbating factor is not new. Technology roadmaps will have to place an even greater focus on efficiency to reduce overall power consumption as demand for cloud services and digital technologies grows.Efficiency has long been a design imperative for battery-run devices. But in the race to reach carbon net zero, this efficiency is now being extended to the most performant devices, from electric vehicles to supercomputers.

That’s why we’re working hard to decarbonize compute, leveraging our expertise in low-power processing to maximize performance per watt. The next two generations of our highest-power CPUs, for example, will bring expected performance gains of 30 percent while keeping energy use flat.

What Is the Biggest Barrier to Climate Progress?

Technology. We don't have adequate solutions yet to replace fossil fuels.
Economics. We have solutions, but they are not nearly cheap enough to scale broadly.
Policies. We need frameworks that will incentivize retrofits and adoption.

Inherently Efficient
Arm's energy-efficient processor designs and software platforms enable products from the sensor to the smartphone and the supercomputer.Delivering more and more compute performance, while simultaneously improving energy efficiency, is what our partners ask from us every day. Decarbonizing compute is an ambition that makes both commercial and environmental sense.

By driving down carbon emissions wherever compute happens, we can help technology to achieve maximum benefit with minimal impact.

"As we become an increasingly digital world, the threat to the climate continues to grow but Arm gives us good reason to hope. Sustainable, innovative technologies that aim to help everyone everywhere can increase connectivity while limiting the impact on climate change, leaving the world a better place for every child and generations to come."

Fayaz King, Deputy Executive Director, Field Results and Innovation, UNICEF

Did you know…?

Arm's first CPU – the Arm1 – was designed to run at <1W. In testing, despite a problem with the power supply, the chip ran perfectly. It was found to be running on energy harvested from the surrounding chips, consuming just 0.1W. This energy efficiency laid the foundations for the low-power compute Arm is famous for today.