SoCal Chapter Webinar: Integrating Carbon Accounting into Cost Estimation for IT, Hardware Systems, and AI Workloads

Integrating Carbon Accounting into Cost Estimation for IT, Hardware Systems, and AI Workloads
November 12, 2026 | 12:00-1:00pm (pacific)

This presentation introduces a lifecycle-based framework for integrating carbon emissions into cost estimation for IT infrastructure, hardware systems, and AI workloads. The framework estimates greenhouse-gas emissions across production, transportation, operation, and end-of-life stages. It addresses IT services; hardware components, commercial off-the-shelf items, and full hardware lifecycles; and AI training and inference, including energy use, shared infrastructure, data storage, and embodied emissions. Aligned with ISO 14040/44 and ISO 14067, the approach helps identify emission hotspots, evaluate design and sourcing alternatives, and support cost-effective, climate-aware decisions.

Speaker:
Dr. Vivian Tang is a Cost Research Analyst at Unison. Her current research focuses on combining mathematical principles with advanced data collection techniques to develop data-driven solutions for cost analysis, with particular emphasis on dataset initiatives, IT services, AI/ML, and carbon research projects. She received her Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Northwestern University in 2020.

RSVP at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/hewEq4SUSmqavX4-n_WGkA