arXiv:2607. 05408v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: The environmental impact of training large language models (LLMs) is increasingly scrutinised, yet most published estimates focus on operational energy and disclose little about manufacturing (embodied) emissions, water consumption, or the underlying highperformance computing (HPC) infrastructure.
arXiv:2609.33965v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: We describe a methodology for estimating the per-token energy cost of cloud-hosted large language model (LLM) inference, separating between i...
The paper reviews 194 papers on using artificial intelligence to optimize data center energy use, coding 63 of them. It finds that most control studies validate only in simulation, none consider water withdrawal or embodied carbon, and savings estimates overlap across methods, preventing ranking. The authors propose CLEAR‑DC, a framework that links control and workload demand through elasticity, reports net benefits, and records energy, carbon, water, embodied share, and validation venue.
arXiv:2607. 26571v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The operational energy consumption of large language model (LLM) inference is becoming an increasingly important component of the environmental footprint of deployed AI systems.
arXiv:2606. 10660v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: AI inference services -- API subscriptions, enterprise chat tools, and SaaS products with embedded AI features -- fall unambiguously within Scope 3 Category 1 under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires disclosure for fiscal years starting January 2024.
arXiv:2606. 07632v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Proper accounting of the energy requirements and environmental impact of artificial intelligence (AI) systems is necessary for researchers, developers, policy makers, and users to assess the barriers to building systems at scale.
The operational energy consumption of large language model (LLM) inference is becoming an increasingly important component of the environmental footprint of deployed AI systems. However, direct measurement of inference energy often requires hardware telemetry, power instrumentation, or infrastructure-specific monitoring, limiting its applicability in comparative studies, early-stage system design, and sustainability reporting.
arXiv:2609.05565v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Large language model (LLM) sustainability is increasingly a serving-systems problem, not only a training problem. In production, energy and carbon im...
The paper reviews 66 studies on large language models (LLMs) applied to HVAC operations in building energy systems, categorizing them by application and method families and evaluating their evidence realism and deployment readiness. It finds that most work focuses on building energy modelling, with only four studies reaching pilot-level evidence and none reporting sustained operational deployment. LLMs are currently best suited as semantic and workflow layers—such as point‑name normalisation and document‑grounded operator support—rather than autonomous HVAC controllers, and future research should target field‑validated benchmarks and safe, low‑latency LLM‑MPC/RL integrations.
arXiv:2607. 01258v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been accompanied by significant increases in computational and environmental costs, driven by large-scale investments in AI infrastructure, hardware, and software.
The paper analyzes the environmental footprint of machine learning model training, focusing on large language models and their hardware. It finds that energy use and environmental impacts have risen exponentially over the past decade, even when employing carbon‑efficient electricity and more efficient hardware. The study argues that optimization strategies alone cannot curb these impacts due to a rebound effect, and stresses the need to evaluate hardware life‑cycle impacts and integrate environmental metrics into NLP research practices.
arXiv:2608. 12915v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: The rapid growth of LLM inference is shifting sustainability concerns from one-time training to continuous serving, where infrastructure decisions shape energy use, carbon emissions, water consumption, and service quality.
The paper argues that large language models (LLMs) have a growing carbon footprint and that current efficiency gains are offset by rebound effects such as Jevons Paradox. It proposes applying the EU waste hierarchy—prevention, reuse, recycling, recovery, and disposal—to LLMs, suggesting that preventing waste and unnecessary use can significantly reduce environmental impact. The authors emphasize that treating LLMs as products that can become waste offers new ways to motivate more sustainable practices.