Microsoft aims to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2030 and has reached several milestones in the past few years to achieve this goal.
Microsoft’s latest announcement is that Xbox has become the first carbon-aware console and will optimize the update and download schedule for all versions of the Xbox console to reduce its carbon footprint.
When a user’s Xbox is connected to the Internet and regional carbon intensity data is available, all updates and downloads will be scheduled at times when the most renewable energy is available, rather than the previous “random” wake-up calls between 2 am and 6 am.
However, to access this feature, you first need to set the power on your Xbox to “Power off (energy saving),” which the preview machine does automatically. According to Microsoft, this setting can reduce power consumption by up to 20 times compared to when the console goes into sleep mode. It’s worth noting that remote wakeup will not be supported when this option is enabled.
Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S game consoles will be the first to get the feature, and Xbox One will also receive the update soon. However, you need to be aware that after enabling this option on the Xbox One game console, the device startup time will be slower.
Microsoft says turning on every two Xbox consoles for one year saves the same amount of carbon as planting a tree for ten years.
