# Embodied Carbon Accounting through Spatial-Temporal Embodied Carbon Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.06364 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06364/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 11 Dec 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Towards Sustainable Large Language Model Serving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.01990/) (2024)
- [The Hidden AI Race: Tracking Environmental Costs of Innovation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.22781/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Embodied carbon is the total carbon released from the processes associated with a product from cradle to gate. In many industry sectors, embodied carbon dominates the overall carbon footprint. Embodied carbon accounting, i.e., to estimate the embodied carbon of a product, has become an important research topic. Existing studies derive the embodied carbon through life cycle analysis (LCA) reports. Current LCA reports only provide the carbon emission of a product class, e.g., 28nm CPU, yet a product instance can be manufactured from diverse regions and in diverse time periods, e.g., a winter period of Ireland (Intel). It is known that the carbon emission depends on the electricity generation process which has spatial and temporal dynamics. Therefore, the embodied carbon of a specific product instance can largely differ from its product class. In this paper, we present new spatial-temporal embodied carbon models for embodied carbon accounting. We observe significant differences between current embodied carbon models and our spatial-temporal embodied carbon models, e.g., for 7nm CPU the difference can be 13.69%.