Over the last decade, companies and organizations have begun to incorporate measures to reduce their carbon footprint on the environment, and Microsoft has been rolling out eco-friendly updates for its video gaming brand, Xbox, in recent months. This week, the trillion-dollar company claimed that the updates will make the Xbox series the first 'carbon aware' console.
Reporting on Xbox Wire, Microsoft said that these changes are all part of their goal to become a "carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste company by 2030." When your console is plugged in, connected to the Internet and regional carbon intensity data is available, Xbox will schedule game, app, and OS updates for your console at specific times during the nightly maintenance window that may result in lower carbon emissions because a higher proportion of electricity is coming from lower-carbon sources on the electric grid. For example, instead of your Xbox waking up during the nightly maintenance window at a random time between 2:00 AM – 6:00 AM, your console will wake up at a time when it can use the most renewable energy in your local energy grid. This decreases fossil fuel dependency and CO2 emissions, and could potentially save you money. Microsoft claims that this new Shutdown feature will be able to reduce power usage by "up to 20X when it's off compared to Sleep." Additionally, the one-time update won't change the console's performance, gameplay, or ability to get updates to the system, games, or apps overnight.