Where IT emissions show up
| What | Where it goes | How to count it |
|---|---|---|
| Laptops, phones, screens, servers you buy | Scope 3, category 2 (capital goods) | Spend × Defra's "Computers and electronics" multiplier, or the maker's product footprint |
| Cloud hosting, software subscriptions, IT support | Scope 3, category 1 (purchased services) | The provider's carbon report, or spend × the "Software and IT services" multiplier |
| Servers and kit running in your office | Scope 2 | Already in your electricity bill |
| Laptops used at home | Scope 3, category 7 (optional) | Included in the government's homeworking factor |
| Old equipment thrown away | Scope 3, category 5 (waste) | Tonnes × the waste electrical equipment factor |
The homeworking factor's office equipment part, 0.02159 kg CO2e per full-time-equivalent hour in 2026, assumes a 140 W workstation plus 10 W of lighting: see our post on homeworking emissions. Waste electrical equipment is small in carbon terms: 9.00687 kg CO2e per tonne to landfill and 4.65358 kg recycled in 2026. The bigger carbon story is at the other end: every device you don't have to replace is one less purchase in category 2.
A worked example
A firm of 25 people gives each a laptop costing £1,000 before VAT, spends £15,000 a year on cloud hosting and software subscriptions, and runs a small server and network kit in a cupboard drawing about 400 W day and night. These are example figures.
| Item | Calculation | kg CO2e a year |
|---|---|---|
| Laptops replaced every 3 years | £8,333 a year × 0.54 | 4,470 |
| Laptops replaced every 5 years | £5,000 a year × 0.54 | 2,682 |
| Cloud and software | £15,000 × 0.10 | 1,499 |
| Server cupboard | 3,504 kWh × 0.13096 | 459 |
Two things stand out. First, a pound spent on hardware carries about 5 times the emissions of a pound spent on software and IT services, so the laptop cycle matters more than the cloud bill. Keeping laptops for five years instead of three cuts the yearly hardware figure from 4.47 to 2.68 tonnes. Second, the server cupboard is in your Scope 2 whether you notice it or not: 3,504 kWh a year from one modest set of kit.
The multipliers are averages per pound from 2023, so they assume you pay an average price. Our post on spend-based Scope 3 explains their limits, and purchased goods and services shows how IT fits with everything else you buy.
Cutting IT emissions
- Keep hardware longer. In the example above it's the biggest single lever. Replace batteries and add memory before replacing a whole laptop.
- Buy refurbished where it suits. A spend-based estimate will show a lower figure because you spend less, but it can't show the true saving from reuse. If you want to count that, ask the seller for a product footprint.
- Switch off and retire idle kit. Old servers, test machines and network gear left running all add to your electricity bill.
- Ask your cloud provider for its figures. AWS, Microsoft and Google each publish customer carbon footprint reports for their cloud services. These are better than a spend-based estimate because they reflect what you actually use, though each provider uses its own method.
- Pass old equipment on for reuse or recycling. Fewer devices in landfill, and some of them get a second life.
Moving an on-site server to the cloud moves its emissions from Scope 2 to Scope 3. That is fine, as long as you count both: don't drop the server from Scope 2 and forget to add the hosting to category 1.
How Carbon Recycling helps
Upload a CSV export of your purchase ledger and Carbon Recycling suggests a Defra multiplier for each account: software, subscriptions and hosting go to software and IT services in category 1, and computer equipment to computers and electronics in category 2. Where a cloud provider or IT supplier gives you a figure, enter it as supplier-reported emissions instead, or on the Growth plan and above, send the supplier a data request and accept their figures into your footprint. Server cupboards are covered by the electricity bills you already enter.