Emissions difference

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Emissions difference

Jain, Pulkit 20

Hi,

Does Emissions from "Carbon optimization" and "Emission Impact Dashboard" are same or they both are different ? Can i add them to make total impact.

Thanks

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Answer 1

John Jefferson Doyon 73,800 Independent Advisor

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

Are you trying to get total emissions, or just review Azure usage?

They are different. Do not add them.

Carbon Optimization shows emissions for Azure resources only. It is for analysis and reduction.

Emissions Impact Dashboard shows a broader, combined view (Azure and Microsoft 365). It is for reporting totals.

If you add them, you will double count Azure emissions.

Use Emissions Impact Dashboard for total reporting.

Use Carbon Optimization for Azure insights.

Jain, Pulkit 20 Reputation points

2026-04-14T10:06:41.7433333+00:00

Thanks, John. Yes, I’m trying to estimate the total emissions from cloud usage across the entire company. Based on your response, I understand that I should rely on the Emissions Impact Dashboard, as it already captures everything included in scope.

Could you also confirm whether this includes emissions from Copilot usage—such as search, analytics, agents, and similar features?

Thanks, Pulkit
John Jefferson Doyon 73,800 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-04-14T10:32:11.52+00:00
Glad to assist!

Yes, you’re correct. Use the Emissions Impact Dashboard for total emissions.

For Copilot:

It is included, but not shown separately.

Copilot runs on Microsoft cloud services, so its emissions are already part of the total in the dashboard.

You won’t see a specific “Copilot” breakdown.
Jain, Pulkit 20 Reputation points

2026-04-14T10:47:03.87+00:00

Okay, thanks for the clarification. However, following up on my question from yesterday, I received a different response from Marcin Policht. He mentioned that emissions from Copilot usage are not currently included.

Could you please help confirm which is accurate? I’ve pasted Marcin’s response below for reference.

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"AFAIK, the Emissions Impact Dashboard for Microsoft 365 currently does not include carbon emissions data for Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot agents, or other integrated AI services. While Microsoft has acknowledged customer requests for more granular reporting on AI initiatives, these specific tools are excluded from the current version of the report. Instead, the dashboard focuses primarily on datacenter emissions and active usage associated with a set of core productivity applications, specifically Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Beyond AI services, several other categories are excluded from this dataset. The dashboard does not capture information regarding your organization's on-premises data centers unless you manually provide that data for comparison. It also lacks support for national or regional cloud deployments, such as those used by the Microsoft US Government or Office 365 operated by 21Vianet. Furthermore, historical data is only available from June 2022 onward, meaning any usage prior to that date is not represented in the reports.

For tracking emissions from AI services that are not part of the standard Microsoft 365 suite, such as those hosted on Azure, you may need to use the Emissions Impact Dashboard for Azure at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sustainability/emissions-impact-dashboard. Note though that the Power BI-hosted version of the Azure dashboard is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2027, with Microsoft transitioning these capabilities to newer solutions like Azure Carbon Optimization.

More at https://learn.microsoft.com/industry/well-architected/sustainability/emissions-impact-dashboard-design#emissions-impact-dashboard-for-microsoft-365"

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Thanks, Pulkit
John Jefferson Doyon 73,800 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-04-14T11:18:58.5766667+00:00

Thank you for letting me know.

Marcin’s answer is correct.

Copilot emissions are not currently included in the Emissions Impact Dashboard for Microsoft 365.

The dashboard only covers core Microsoft 365 services like Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

So your total from the dashboard does not include Copilot or AI-related usage.
Jain, Pulkit 20 Reputation points

2026-04-16T06:00:44.2+00:00

Okay Thanks a lot
John Jefferson Doyon 73,800 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-04-16T06:12:17.61+00:00

Glad to assist!

I really hope this information is helpful! :)

If you'd like, you can click "Yes" below the response that provided the helpful info. This way, any users who come across this thread with similar issues will find the info and benefit as well.

Thank you!

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Emissions difference

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