/google-cloud-waf-sustainability

name: google-cloud-waf-sustainability
metadata:
  category: WellArchitectedFramework
description: >-
  Generates sustainability-focused guidance for Google Cloud workloads based on
  the design principles and recommendations in the Google Cloud Well-Architected
  Framework (WAF). Use this skill to evaluate a workload, identify environmental
  impact requirements, and provide actionable recommendations to build, deploy,
  and manage the workload sustainably in Google Cloud.

Google Cloud Well-Architected Framework skill for the Sustainability pillar

Overview

The Sustainability pillar of the Google Cloud Well-Architected Framework provides principles and recommendations to help you minimize the environmental impact of your cloud workloads. It focuses on a shared responsibility model—Google optimizes the sustainability *of* the cloud, while customers optimize sustainability *in* the cloud. By making informed decisions about architecture, resource allocation, and region selection, you can significantly reduce your carbon footprint and improve overall energy efficiency.

Core principles

The recommendations in the sustainability pillar of the Well-Architected Framework are aligned with the following core principles:

• **Shared responsibility**: Define the boundaries of responsibility and

embrace a shared fate model, working with your cloud provider and partners to achieve optimal environmental outcomes for the entire ecosystem. Grounding document: https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/framework/sustainability.md.txt

• **Use regions that consume low-carbon energy**: Prioritize Google Cloud

regions with a high percentage of Carbon-Free Energy (CFE) and "Low CO2" indicators to lower the gross carbon emissions of your deployments. Grounding document: https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/framework/sustainability/low-carbon-regions.md.txt

• **Optimize AI and ML workloads**: Maximize computations per watt by matching

algorithmic needs to specialized hardware (like TPUs) and applying mathematical techniques to reduce computational complexity. Grounding document: https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/framework/sustainability/ai-ml-energy-efficiency.md.txt

• **Optimize resource usage**: Eliminate energy waste by scaling resources to

zero when idle, rightsizing virtual machines, and prioritizing managed services that dynamically match actual demand. Grounding document: https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/framework/sustainability/optimize-resource-usage.md.txt

• **Develop energy-efficient software**: Design your applications to minimize

unnecessary CPU, memory, and network activity on both backend servers and end-user devices by using event-driven logic and optimized assets. Grounding document: https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/framework/sustainability/energy-efficient-software.md.txt

• **Optimize data and storage**: Reduce the environmental footprint of your

storage by implementing lifecycle management to archive cold data and eliminating "dark data" that provides no business value. Grounding document: https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/framework/sustainability/optimize-storage.md.txt

• **Continuously measure and improve**: Gain visibility into your carbon

emissions by analyzing granular data, identifying hotspots, and taking proactive steps to remediate inefficiencies. Grounding document: https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/framework/sustainability/continuously-measure-improve.md.txt

• **Promote a culture of sustainability**: Embed sustainability into your

organizational governance, connect technical decisions to environmental goals, and ensure staff have the skills to implement green practices. Grounding document: https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/framework/sustainability/culture.md.txt

• **Align sustainability practices with industry guidelines**: Ensure that

your sustainability initiatives are aligned with industry guidelines for measurement, reporting, and verification, such as W3C Web Sustainability Guidelines, Green Software Foundation, and Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Grounding document: https://docs.cloud.google.com/architecture/framework/sustainability/industry-guidelines.md.txt

Relevant Google Cloud products

The following are _examples_ of Google Cloud products and features that are relevant to sustainability:

• **Visibility and measurement**:
• **Carbon Footprint**: Provides dashboard visibility into greenhouse gas

emissions associated with Google Cloud usage.

• **BigQuery**: Analyzes exported Carbon Footprint data alongside billing

data to identify emission hotspots.

• **Infrastructure and operations**:
• **Google Cloud Region Picker**: Helps weigh carbon footprint, cost, and

latency when selecting deployment locations.

• **Active Assist / Recommender**: Automatically identifies idle resources

and provides VM rightsizing recommendations to reduce waste.

• **Cloud Run / GKE Autopilot**: Fully managed compute environments that

optimize cluster usage and can scale to zero when idle.

• **Cloud Batch**: Optimizes the scheduling of batch jobs, allowing

execution during periods of high Carbon-Free Energy.

• **Spot VMs**: Utilizes unused data center capacity for fault-tolerant

workloads, improving overall hardware efficiency.

• **Data and AI**:
• **Cloud Storage Lifecycle Management**: Automatically transitions older

data to lower-energy storage classes (Nearline, Coldline, Archive).

• **Cloud TPUs**: Specialized hardware optimized for the energy efficiency

of large-scale AI/ML matrix multiplications.

Workload assessment questions

Ask appropriate questions to understand the sustainability-related requirements and constraints of