Report Claims Sony And Microsoft Must Spend Billions To Offset Carbon Footprint Of New And Past Consoles

This is a very interesting statement but I wonder if the numbers are grossly inflated.

Sony must spend $6.3 billion to offset annual carbon footprint

• The 10.63 million tonnes of CO2 emitted by Sony products over the last year could cost up to $6,378,000,000 to capture, new research reveals.
• It can cost up to $600 to capture CO2 from the air per tonne, meaning Microsoft would also have to spend up to $9.6 billion to remove this year’s emissions.
• Console Carbon Footprint reveals the environmental impact of producing physical game discs compared to digital downloads across various platforms.
• 21 gaming companies, including Sony and Microsoft, have pledged to reduce their collective CO2 footprint by more than 30 million tonnes by 2030.

Sony must spend $6.3 billion to offset annual carbon footprint

• The 10.63 million tonnes of CO2 emitted by Sony products over the last year could cost up to $6,378,000,000 to capture, new research reveals.
• It can cost up to $600 to capture CO2 from the air per tonne, meaning Microsoft would also have to spend up to $9.6 billion to remove this year’s emissions.
• Console Carbon Footprint reveals the environmental impact of producing physical game discs compared to digital downloads across various platforms.
• 21 gaming companies, including Sony and Microsoft, have pledged to reduce their collective CO2 footprint by more than 30 million tonnes by 2030.

Sony would have to spend upwards of $6.3 billion to offset the 10.63 million carbon emissions generated over the lifetime of all products sold at the end of 2018, new research shows.

Console Carbon Footprint reveals the total carbon footprint of top-selling titles and consoles over the last year, and found that Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 5 is set to be the tech giant’s most sustainable console since the PlayStation Classic.

Microsoft announced plans to remove all the CO2 it has ever released into the atmosphere by 2050, with the strategy including spending $1 billion over the next four years to fund innovation in reducing, capturing and removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

The technology works by pulling CO2 from the air and using it to make synthetic fuel, rather than emitting new molecules into the atmosphere. But this tech is expensive, costing around $600 per tonne of CO2 according to the American Physical Society.

Some scientists state that the cost of pulling a tonne of CO2 from the atmosphere ranges between $94 and $232 depending on design options and economic assumptions. Based on the mean price of $163 per tonne, Sony would still have to spend $1.732 billion to completely offset their annual carbon footprint.

For the tech giant, television is the highest-emitting area, followed by games, audio and video, imaging products and solutions, and then other devices. In an effort to lower overall CO2 emissions, Sony said that it will include energy-efficient technology in their next generation console, and install a low consumption mode that they estimate can be achieved at about 0.5 watts.

Players that are concerned about their carbon emissions could do so by opting to play their favourite game on a more eco-friendly console. Converting the average power usage of each console into CO2 emissions overall reveals that the PlayStation Classic is the most eco-friendly, while Xboxes account for the highest carbon footprint on average.

With 21 gaming companies – including Sony – having pledged to reduce their collective CO2 footprint by more than 30 million tonnes by 2030, it’s crucial that major console companies continue to prioritise sustainable power usage and quick download times moving forward.

To read more about the environmental impacts of digital downloads and plastic production in Console Carbon Footprint, visit: