IBM

Carbon per million dollars of revenue. The legacy industry-standard reference (CDP, MSCI). Useful for cross-sector context, but distorted by margin — high-margin firms appear artificially efficient. Read alongside the operational and asset intensities for the full picture.

OpEx (operating expenditure) is the running cost of the business — staff, services, energy, materials. This shows how carbon-intensive operations are per million dollars of spend. Removes the margin distortion that revenue-based ratios introduce.

EVIC (Enterprise Value Including Cash) is the firm's total capital footprint — equity + debt + cash + minority interest. The EU's standard intensity measure (SFDR PAI 3) — answers: how much carbon does each million of capital deployed in this business produce?

PP&E (Property, Plant & Equipment) plus leased real-estate assets is the firm's physical infrastructure on the balance sheet. This shows the carbon intensity of that physical footprint — uses Scope 1+2+3 for consistency with the other headline intensities. Surfaces stranded-asset risk for asset-heavy firms.

IBM procures renewable electricity through contracted purchases and renewable electricity that automatically comes via routine grid power. Renewable electricity reached 79.6% of total electricity consumption in 2024, ahead of the 75%-by-2025 goal, with a 90%-by-2030 target. IBM notes that timing mismatch between renewable generation and consumption means some delivered electricity may still be fossil-generated, though net procurement equals claimed amounts.

No narrative on durable removals approach in the firm's most recent reports.

• Data center cooling efficiency

  IBM targets a 20% improvement in data center cooling efficiency vs 2019 base year by 2025; achieved 25.5% improvement in 2024, exceeding the goal.

• Operational energy use reduction

  Total operational energy consumption declined from 2,529,000 MWh (2020) to 2,236,000 MWh (2024). Combined with renewable electricity procurement, this drove operational GHG emissions down 77.1% vs 2010 base year, exceeding the 65%-by-2025 goal.

• Business travel reduction

  Business travel emissions reported at 277,000 tCO2e in 2024, up from 117,000 in 2023 — increase reflects methodology expansion to include rail and hotels alongside air and rental cars. IBM tracks this as a discrete Scope 3 category.

• Waste diversion and circularity

  94.4% of nonhazardous waste diverted from landfill/incineration in 2024, exceeding the 90%-by-2025 goal. Waste-to-energy capped at 8.6%, within the firm's <10% limit. End-of-life product waste sent to landfill or incineration at 0.7%, well within the 3% combined limit.

• Use of sold products (hardware lifetime emissions)

  IBM's largest Scope 3 category by far. Methodology overhauled in 2024 to capture whole-lifetime emissions of hardware sold during the year, assuming 24/7 peak-power utilization. Reported emissions jumped from 297,000 to 2,213,000 tCO2e, reflecting more conservative accounting rather than absolute increase. IBM continues to focus on lower-emissions vehicle leasing (Cat 8) where it sets standard guidelines requiring lower-emission vehicle leasing.