As of Fall 2019, the activities of the lab are carbon neutral, using offset programs where necessary. We estimate the carbon produced through lab activities—high-performance computing powered by non-renewable energy, travel, and group-funded meals—and offset them through the most credible programs we are aware of. This represents a negligible fraction of the budget for a large lab. We urge others to do the same.
2021-2022
Figures will be posted in September 2022.
2020–2021
Our retrospective estimate for the 2019–2020 academic year is 336 metric tonnes of CO2, less than half that of any previous year, despite continued growth in the size of the lab. This reflects a ban on NYU-funded travel during this academic year due to COVID-19, and the fact that travel had previously represented the majority of our emissions, even in a research area that uses high-performance computing extensively.
We offset these emissions through payments to the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, using a worst-case estimate of their emissions mitigation effectiveness from Founders Pledge.
2019–2020
For the academic years 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, we used the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Climate Neutral Now program. Our retrospective estimate for the 2019–2020 academic year is 697 metric tonnes of CO2. Offsetting this as of December 2019 cost less than $500 USD, paid from discretionary lab funds.
2019–2020
2018–2019
This is an expansion of a prior effort by the ML for Language group at NYU.