About the Sustainability dashboard
Located in the account area of the Fastly control panel, the Sustainability dashboard provides platform usage, electricity consumption, and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission metrics across the Fastly PoP network to anyone assigned the role of billing or superuser on your account. Metrics are accessible via the Fastly control panel, API, and downloadable CSVs.
Before you begin
Be sure you know how to access the web interface controls before learning about the details you'll encounter here.
Accessing the Sustainability dashboard
To access the Sustainability dashboard in the Fastly control panel, follow these steps:
Log in to the Fastly control panel.
- Go to Account > Sustainability dashboard.
About the controls
A series of controls appears to the right of the page name. These controls allow you to refine the displayed metrics. Specifically:
- the Date range menu allows you to change the timeframe over which metrics will be displayed. You can select a predefined period, such as the previous year or a specific date from February 4th, 2023 forward.
- the Date resolution menu allows you to change the time value. You can select day or month. Day resolution is available for a maximum range of 90 days.
- the Export menu allows you to export the metrics for the selected date range and date resolution to a CSV file. Separate CSV files are available for global total data (by time period) or for a country and product area summary. Separate CSV files are available for global total data (by time period) or for a country and product area. We use ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 country codes. Refer to the ISO website for a list of country codes.
About the metrics
The Sustainability dashboard displays the following metrics.
| Metric | CSV/API header | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity-related GHG Emissions |
| Scope 2 and 3 GHG emissions associated with electricity consumption in Fastly PoPs in Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (MTCO2e):
Scope 3 is calculated from electricity consumption by facility-operated non-IT equipment (Scope 3 category 8) + upstream fuel and energy-related emissions associated with Fastly-operated IT equipment electricity consumption (Scope 3 category 3). Refer to the Sustainability dashboard methodology for more information. |
| Total Electricity Consumption (market-based) |
| Grid electricity consumed by Fastly-operated IT equipment and facility-operated non-IT equipment (e.g., data center cooling) over time, including the impact of renewable energy coverage (MWh):
|
| Renewable Electricity Coverage |
| Electricity consumption by Fastly IT equipment covered by renewable energy procurement or on-site generation as a percentage of the total:
|
| Electricity Consumption by Product Area (location-based) |
| Total (grid + renewable) electricity consumed by Fastly-operated IT equipment in megawatt-hours (MWh). This is broken down by product area and shared components:
|
| Bandwidth |
| Total bandwidth consumed across all services in gigabytes (GB). |
| CPU Time |
| Total CPU use by Compute services in seconds (CPU seconds). |
Calculation approach
On a daily basis, Fastly measures the Total Electricity Consumption (TEC) by Fastly-operated IT equipment (such as servers, networking infrastructure, and power distribution units) used to operate Fastly products and services across our global network.
We gather the average annual Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) for each facility where we have a presence from our global network of colocation operators. PUE is used to estimate the electricity consumption of non-IT equipment (for example, to regulate data center temperature).
We also gather the renewable energy coverage at each facility where we have a presence from our colocation operators and validate these claims by requiring documentary evidence of renewable energy procurement and on-site generation.
We measure the use of services (bandwidth and compute time from billing stats) for each account, in each PoP, and use it to apportion IT equipment and non-IT equipment electricity consumption (both covered by renewables and from the grid) to each individual customer account on a daily basis. We factor in relative usage by Fastly product area (Delivery, Compute, or Shared Components) based on process CPU Time.
We then use the apportioned electricity consumption (IT and non-IT equipment, renewable and grid) to calculate Scope 2 and 3 GHG emissions with location-specific GHG factors for international grid electricity (calculated from fuel mix) from the Carbon Database Initiative (CaDI).
Our emissions calculations require annual data that colocation providers only release after each calendar year ends. We request and collect facility PUE and renewable energy coverage during Q1 for the previous year, but these critical inputs aren't immediately available. To provide timely insights rather than waiting until Q2 of the following year, we forecast current-year emissions using the most recent available data combined with real-time electricity consumption. All current-year dashboard data should therefore be interpreted as forecasts until actual annual data becomes available in Q2, when we finalize and update the previous year's calculations. The changelog tracks when finalized data is published.
Refer to the Sustainability dashboard methodology for more in-depth information about how we specifically create and use these calculations.
Scope 2 and 3 GHG emissions included
This data includes Scope 2 and 3 carbon emissions associated with electricity consumption in facilities that house Fastly PoPs, as defined under the GHG Protocol's Scope 2 Guidance and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard.
Fastly uses Scenario 1 from global non-profit BSR's (Business for Social Responsibility) Future of Internet Power Report. This means we account for electricity consumed by Fastly-operated IT equipment in colocated data centers as Scope 2, and electricity consumption by equipment owned by colocated data center operators as Scope 3 category 8.
In the graphs and data accessible via the sustainability dashboard:
- Scope 2 GHG emissions are calculated from electricity consumption by Fastly-operated IT equipment.
- Scope 3 GHG emissions are calculated from electricity consumption by facility-operated non-IT equipment (Scope 3 category 8) plus upstream fuel and energy-related emissions associated with Fastly IT equipment electricity consumption (Scope 3 category 3).
- Location-based GHG emissions are calculated from total electricity consumption (ignoring renewable energy procured or generated on-site) and use CaDI's electricity generation emissions factors as relevant to the geographical location of the facility.
- Market-based GHG emissions are calculated from grid electricity consumption (which therefore count renewable energy procurement or on-site renewable energy generation as zero emissions) and use CaDI's residual emissions factors as relevant to the geographical location of the facility.
While the Sustainability dashboard provides insights into data center electricity consumption, renewable energy coverage, and associated GHG emissions, it does not provide data on other environmental factors such as water, diesel, or other categories of Scope 3, such as category 1 (purchased goods and services, which includes emissions associated with third party cloud hosting), category 5 (waste generated in operations), category 6 (business travel), or category 7 (employee commuting). It is not designed to attribute Fastly's full GHG inventory to individual customer accounts.
Fastly service and region coverage
All Fastly services and available regions where you have generated usage are covered in this report. At this time, the report does not include public traffic routed through embedded PoPs, and excludes sub-processing used for some products and platform features available to Fastly services (see limitations and exclusions below).
Limitations and considerations
Due to the availability and complexity of accurately attributing electricity consumption and GHG emissions to customer accounts from source data, the Sustainability dashboard will not show platform usage metrics, electricity consumption, or carbon emissions associated with the following third-party and Fastly sub-processors.
Third-party sub-processors
- Google: Used for backend data hosting, data insights, and observability. Products that use Google's services include Image Optimizer, AI Accelerator, KV Store, Secret Store, Observability features, and event monitoring services.
- AWS: Used for backend data hosting and observability. Products that use AWS's services are the Next-Gen WAF, Bot Management, and the Glitch Platform. AWS is also used for customer dashboards and audit logs, and for provisioning and hosting the control plane.
- MongoDB Atlas: Used for backend data hosting. Products that use MongoDB Atlas' services include Next-Gen WAF and its associated services.
- Backblaze: Used for data hosting. Fastly Object Storage uses Backblaze's services.
Fastly sub-processors
The following Fastly products and platform features use additional processing on Fastly IT equipment beyond the Fastly PoPs handling a request:
- Image Optimizer and Object Storage (Delivery)
- Real-Time Log Streaming and Log Explorer and Insights (Observability)
- Edge Next-Gen WAF (Security)
Data confidentiality and publication guidance
The data provided in this dashboard is Fastly's confidential information. Customers may extract or export the data contained within this dashboard for internal analysis and aggregation across suppliers as part of their corporate sustainability and GHG emissions reporting, however the data remains confidential and customers may not disclose, include in a press release, report publicly, or report to any third party any sustainability data provided through this service as a standalone number.
The data provided in this dashboard relies in part on third-party data (most notably from our colocation providers) and is subject to estimations and measurement uncertainties due to limitations inherent in the nature and availability of such data and the methods used for aggregating and calculating it. In some cases, we have not been able to independently verify or audit the third-party data. The data in the dashboard may be affected by these limitations and could vary if we, or the third parties we work with, employ different measurement techniques.
What's next
Dig deeper into details about all areas of the web interface before you move on to working with services.
