AT&T has created a Connect Climate Initiative to reduce its carbon emissions. This means bringing together researchers and business partners to look at ways of curbing carbon emissions. AT&T is looking to eventually reduce total emissions in the US by 1 gigaton, equivalent to 1 billion tons. Currently, a gigaton is around 15% of the U.S.’s total carbon output. As well, AT&T plans to be carbon neutral before 2035.

Right now, AT&T has announced companies such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Equinix (EQIX) as partners in this project. Universities such as Texas A&M and The University of Missouri are included in the research section of the initiative.

The initiative aims to encourage IT companies to rely on systems that produce fewer carbon emissions. As well, further cloud work is another major component. Reducing the number of computers and servers working will produce fewer emissions. Moving these systems to the cloud is a possible way to reduce carbon emissions.

Equinix is letting customers use AT&T services to connect directly to serves and datacentres. Therefore, less infrastructure is used and fewer carbon emissions are created. Equinix has mentioned that the 10,000 customers have been shifted to AT&T networks. The technology is there to upscale, it just requires further support and research.