Mercury is location-based, meaning emissions are estimated based on where and when energy is physically consumed. Mercury calculates location-based emissions for cloud computing on a 24/7 basis across multiple regions and cloud service providers.

Cloud service providers typically produce market-based carbon footprint estimates, which reflect their internal purchasing of contractual instruments like Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), not where and when the electricity for cloud use is actually consumed. Market-based carbon footprints are typically provided on a monthly or annual basis.

Mercury is location-based, meaning emissions are estimated based on where and when energy is physically consumed. Mercury calculates location-based emissions for cloud computing on a 24/7 basis across multiple regions and cloud service providers.

Cloud service providers typically produce market-based carbon footprint estimates, which reflect their internal purchasing of contractual instruments like Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), not where and when the electricity for cloud use is actually consumed. Market-based carbon footprints are typically provided on a monthly or annual basis.

Mercury monitors your cloud use across multiple services and regions on a 24/7 basis. Cloud use is converted to kilowatt-hours of electricity consumption based on the underlying utilization of specific cloud resources. Your Carbon-Free Score is then calculated by weighting the carbon-free percentage of the local grid by your hourly electricity consumption in that region.

Mercury uses the built-in recommended reporting features of each cloud service provider (e.g. Cost & Usage Reports for AWS). Mercury retains read-only access to a single report location within an isolated bucket—and cannot access or modify any other cloud assets. Everything else, including compute, happens within Mercury at no charge to you. Your team can review the cloud resource template when connecting to Mercury, or you can review it directly here.

Mercury calculates the carbon-free percentage of the local grid using consumption-based carbon intensity data from the Energy Information Administration. Consumption-based carbon intensities account for the interchange of electricity between grid regions and are the most comprehensive measure of region-specific emissions. The data are reported at the hourly level by local balancing authorities such as Bonneville Power Administration, PJM, and CAISO.

Yes. Mercury maintains industry-standard data security and encryption processes, and adheres to cloud service providers’ recommended best practices for access controls, user management, and network security. Your data is only used to calculate your Carbon-Free Score and related metrics; it is never transferred to another party, sold, or otherwise monetized. Upon deletion of your account, your data is wiped from our systems and is no longer accessible by Mercury. For more details, please see our end user privacy policy.

Yes! Mercury’s underlying methodology is fully compliant with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s guidance for measuring location-based emissions from purchased electricity. The GHGP is the most widely recognized standard for carbon accounting.

No! Mercury is a fully hosted and freely available service. So sign up, invite your teammates, connect your cloud and and start tracking your 24/7 climate impact today!