# On the Promise and Pitfalls of Optimizing Embodied Carbon

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.15816 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.15816/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 27 Jun 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Memory as a Wasting Asset: Pricing Flash Endurance for Embodied Agents, and the Limits of Doing So](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.18144/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

To halt further climate change, computing, along with the rest of society, must reduce, and eventually eliminate, its carbon emissions. Recently, many researchers have focused on estimating and optimizing computing's embodied carbon, i.e., from manufacturing computing infrastructure, in addition to its operational carbon, i.e., from executing computations, primarily because the former is much larger than the latter but has received less research attention. Focusing attention on embodied carbon is important because it can incentivize i) operators to increase their infrastructure's efficiency and lifetime and ii) downstream suppliers to reduce their own operational carbon, which represents upstream companies' embodied carbon. Yet, as we discuss, focusing attention on embodied carbon may also introduce harmful incentives, e.g., by significantly overstating real carbon reductions and complicating the incentives for directly optimizing operational carbon. This position paper's purpose is to mitigate such harmful incentives by highlighting both the promise and potential pitfalls of optimizing embodied carbon.