“There are things known and there are things unknown and in between are the doors of perception.” — Aldous Huxley

I’m Huxley Westemeier (26’) and welcome to “The Sift,” a weekly opinions column focused on the impacts and implications of new technologies.

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Earth Day 2025 falls on April 22nd, next Tuesday. Each year, this global celebration of our planet invites us to reflect on the environmental impact and implement strategies for protecting Earth. Some ideas include recycling more, buying fewer plastic single-use products, and holding on to electronic devices for longer. However, sustainability isn’t just an individual responsibility. This Earth Day, I’d like to take this opportunity to inform readers of the climate-related technologies from three of the largest companies we use for school and leisure.

Microsoft’s Windows 11 has a few features aimed at cutting carbon emissions. Energy Saver is the most practical, and one that most users have likely utilized unwittingly in the past few years (it automatically turns on when at 20% battery). According to Microsoft, it boosts battery life, increasing the time between charges and drawing less electricity from the grid. However, the small change in battery life- 14%- isn’t likely to make a drastic difference, and I still have to charge my Lenovo one to two times a day no matter the power setting. Microsoft’s carbon-aware “Power Grid Forecast API” provides raw data to developers in an attempt to encourage users to perform demanding tasks (such as a Windows Update) when low-carbon energy sources (solar, hydro, wind) are available. It’s unclear how much energy this feature can save, and adoption of the forecast model has been lackluster.

Additionally, a report from February 2025 by Climate Insider explains that Microsoft has retracted its promise to be fully carbon-neutral by 2030, due to the rising energy costs associated with AI data centers. I wrote last year about how Microsoft relies on a nuclear power plant to help power AI servers, but no further information has been released.

Google likes to boast that since 2017, it has matched 100% of its annual electricity consumption with renewable sources and is on track to be entirely carbon-free by 2030. Google has indeed spent vast resources creating efficient AI processors, including their latest Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) known as Trillium. According to Google, their average power effectiveness for data centers powering Search and AI features like Gemini was 1.10 compared to the industry average of 1.58, implying that their data centers used 5.8 times LESS energy per unit than other companies.

However tempting as it might sound, it’s crucial to understand that Google processes billions of requests every day, so while it might be more efficient per query, it’s definitely not winning any environmental awards for the total. Their total Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions took a step backward and rose 13% year-over-year from 2023 due to increased data center investment.

As of April 16th, 2025, Apple has cut 60% of its GHG emissions since 2015. The reduction is partly due to Apple’s commitment to using 99% recycled magnets and 99% recycled copper in all its lithium-ion batteries. How does this translate to actual physical products? Apple quotes that the latest M4 MacBook Air is 55% recycled overall. While Google’s GHG rose by 13% from 2023, Apple’s shrank by 5%.

As impressive as these statistics might sound in comparison, it is essential to note that Apple (like Google and Microsoft) often relies on carbon credits to claim its neutrality statistics. Apple pays other specialized companies to reduce their emissions or remove carbon from the atmosphere, in exchange for stating that Apple is close to being “carbon-neutral”. There’s a lack of transparency across all industries regarding carbon credits, which gives consumers an unrealistic and misleading representation of how their product was made.

My tip for Earth Day 2025: don’t buy any more laptops, smartphones, or other tech unless needed (and don’t be fooled by the flashy, shiny devices). There’s no point in upgrading year-after-year! Reduce your use of AI services like Gemini or ChatGPT, as hard as that might be, and look into renewable energy options like solar panels.

Everyone’s contributions, no matter how small, ARE meaningful for our planet. Instead of a trip to the Apple Store, plant a tree or pick up some garbage on Earth Day.