It’s easy to forget that the internet is physical. Every time someone streams a show or sporting event, refreshes a news homepage, or downloads a game or app update, data travels across the globe. It moves from origin servers, through edge networks, and onto user devices. It’s (mostly!) a seamless experience - but it does require energy. 

For media companies trying to accurately report and reduce their digital carbon footprints, mapping this journey has been complex and challenging. While data center and end-user device footprints can be quantified, the middle piece, the network delivery, has often had to rely on estimates based on industry averages.

There’s a better way: We are incredibly excited to announce that Fastly has joined DIMPACT, a pioneering coalition of streaming and publishing giants, sustainability leaders, and researchers dedicated to aligning efforts and coordinating an industry where environmental impacts are shared across a complex system of players and participants.

Many of our customers have ambitious climate targets. But achieving those targets is made more difficult when they can't measure their digital carbon footprint.

Fastly’s Sustainability Dashboard already helps remove the ambiguity from Scope 3 emissions reporting. Through our participation in DIMPACT, we want to empower the digital media sector with the actionable insights needed for companies to understand and optimize their digital footprints.

Our commitment to 100% renewable electricity coverage across all our global points of presence gives our customers confidence and, critically, the evidence, that their ever-increasing edge workloads aren’t in conflict with their emission reduction targets.

At Fastly, we believe that software efficiency not only reduces costs but also drives lower carbon intensity. Our architecture is built to do more with less: consolidating traffic, minimizing origin requests through Request Collapsing, and processing data right where users are. Joining DIMPACT allows us to validate these efficiencies scientifically and share those insights directly with everyone using our edge platform.

We're proud to stand alongside industry changemakers to build a faster, safer, and cleaner internet. Stay tuned as we continue on our journey towards a better internet. 

Read more about our announcement.