Scaling Design for Sustainability Across Meta's Hardware Organization

Why It Matters

By embedding AI‑powered carbon accounting into hardware design, Meta turns Scope 3 emissions from a vague liability into a quantifiable, actionable metric, accelerating industry‑wide progress toward net‑zero data‑center operations.

Key Takeaways

• Meta uses AI to map specs to OCPCR taxonomy automatically.
• Design‑for‑Sustainability reduced projected rack emissions by 12% fleet‑wide.
• 60% of new racks identified at least one carbon‑saving opportunity.
• IMEC’s iMEC.net Zero tool provides bottom‑up semiconductor LCA estimates.
• Thermal design power now powers parametric carbon models for unknown chips.

Summary

Meta’s hardware teams presented a systematic, AI‑driven Design for Sustainability framework that scales carbon‑footprint estimation across the entire rack portfolio. Leveraging the OCP PCR taxonomy, AI tools automatically map early‑stage specifications to component carbon data, select the highest‑quality scores, and propose alternatives such as reuse, greener materials, or supplier changes. The process targets Scope 3 emissions, which dominate Meta’s hardware impact despite 100% renewable data‑center power. In its first year, the methodology covered 100% of new racks, uncovering at least one emission‑reduction lever in 60% of projects and delivering an overall 12% projected carbon cut for the fleet. AI assists every step—from taxonomy mapping to component reuse suggestions and emissions tracking through design validation stages. A key technical enabler is the partnership with IMEC’s iMEC.net Zero tool, which delivers bottom‑up life‑cycle assessments for semiconductor components. By combining high‑quality LCA data with a parametric model tied to thermal design power, Meta can estimate carbon footprints for chips lacking direct data, filling gaps and scaling estimates to system‑level analyses. The initiative demonstrates how AI‑augmented LCA and early‑stage design decisions can materially lower hardware emissions, offering a replicable blueprint for other tech firms seeking to meet aggressive sustainability targets while maintaining rapid AI‑driven hardware innovation.

Original Description

Presenter(s):

Lisa Rivalin, Systems Engineer, Meta

Emre Tepedelenlioglu, Production Systems Engineer, Meta

Alexandra Bruefach, Research Scientist, Meta

Lars-Åke Ragnarsson, Program Director, imec

Lisa Rivalin, Systems Engineer, Meta

Emre Tepedelenlioglu, Production Systems Engineer, Meta

Alexandra Bruefach, Research Scientist, Meta

Lars-Åke Ragnarsson, Program Director, imec

In 2025- Meta embedded sustainability into its hardware New Product Introduction process- making carbon assessment a standard gate for every new rack design. With AI-powered tooling integrated directly into design workflows- teams estimate Scope 3 emissions before BOMs exist- reducing weeks of analysis to days. In its first year- the program covered 100% of new designs at approval- identified reduction opportunities in 60% of programs- and achieved ~12% weighted emission reductions.Semiconductors represent ~80% of server embodied carbon- yet remain the hardest to model. To close this gap- Meta partnered with IMEC to leverage imec.netzero- a physics-based tool for IC carbon footprints. We show how outputs scale from ICs to CPUs using chiplet-level modeling- and to fleet-wide estimates using a TDP-based linear model we propose to share openly.We propose open-sourcing some of our DfS tools as part of the OCP PCR toolkit and invite organizations to pilot the methodology.