Dr Eva Samaras and Elise Bradshaw, University of Melbourne
Introduction
The University of Melbourne’s Digital Preservation Program is a small team within the Library. We provide guidance to staff and researchers on strategies, actions and tools for long-term digital preservation. In 2020 we implemented a vendor-hosted digital preservation repository system to safeguard our digital collections, including cultural collections and research. The software as a service solution (SaaS) is fully hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure in Australia. All digital assets within the solution are managed in both hot and cold AWS storage.
Why we got involved in testing the DPC’s Carbon Footprint Toolkit
In 2025 we conducted a literature scan about environmental sustainability in digital preservation and presented some findings at the Australian Society of Archivists Conference. Sustainability is a core principle in our decision-making, so we welcomed the DPC’s Carbon Footprint Toolkit as a complementary resource to support our program’s environmental objectives and begin quantifying its environmental impact.
What we chose to focus on
In testing the Carbon Footprint Toolkit, we were focused on the cloud carbon figures in the calculator spreadsheet (the In cloud tab of the spreadsheet) and wanted to explore whether we could obtain carbon figures from our vendor. Additionally, we wanted to assess the carbon footprint of transferring data across the University network to AWS infrastructure during ingest.
What we achieved
We contacted our system vendor and asked if they could provide a report from the AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool (now known as the AWS Sustainability Console). They then provided us with a CSV export which provides running carbon figures for each month that encompass compute and hardware (Amazon EC2), storage (Amazon S3) and distributed infrastructure (Other). The AWS export includes columns with two types of figures:
- Market-Based Method (MBM) (AWS' default view): Calculates emissions based on the specific electricity contracts and renewable energy certificates (RECs) purchased by AWS. Best for: Tracking your footprint against AWS’s progress towards 100% renewable energy and carbon-neutral goals.
- Location-Based Method (LBM): Calculates emissions based on the average carbon intensity of the local electricity grid where your AWS resources are physically located. Best for: Understanding the true environmental impact of your usage on the local power grid, regardless of AWS's external energy purchases.
We decided to use the LBM figures as they seemed most aligned with the purpose of our investigation. We totaled the LBM figures for the previous 12-month period and then converted from tonnes to kilograms. We then entered the total figure into the DPC Carbon Footprint Calculation Tool In Cloud tab.
In addition to the cloud figures, we reviewed the total volume of data ingested into the preservation system then calculated a daily average in megabytes which was entered into the ‘Acquisition, Transfer and Ingest’ section of the Networking tab of the Carbon Footprint Calculation Tool.
Lessons learned
As a SaaS customer, we lack granular, activity level breakdowns for our actions in the preservation system. Requesting a report from our vendor’s AWS tool proved the most practical way to obtain usable cloud footprint data. The AWS figures revealed that to date, our compute and hardware infrastructure generates more carbon than our storage requirements.
Next steps
As the DPC Carbon Footprint Calculation Tool also includes an option to record travel, we have decided to track the carbon footprint of any inter-state or international travel we undertake for digital preservation-related conferences and events. With a process now established to obtain carbon statistics from our vendor, we will request these figures on a regular basis and use them to inform program decision-making. We will also include carbon footprint data into our regular reports to Library management, enhancing visibility of the environmental impact of our digital preservation work and supporting our ongoing commitment to more sustainable practices.