Driving Real-World Impact: Inside Akamai’s 2025 Sustainability Report

• Our company is actively decoupling growth from our carbon footprint by scaling global cloud and AI computing while using software optimizations to shrink its environmental footprint.  

• We rely on emissionality-first procurement to target renewable investments in high-carbon grids to maximize real-world emissions displacement.  

• To move beyond basic compliance accounting, we launched the publicly available CLIMATE-2026 framework to measure the actual consequences of business decisions. 

• We’re actively engaging with stakeholders across the Asia-Pacific region and helping to launch cross-industry initiatives like the Media Climate Accord.
• The final standalone 2025 Sustainability Report marks our transition to digital-first reporting as we redirect administrative resources into active grid impact and real-time updates on our microsite.

The technology sector has long been defined by its extraordinary capacity for rapid growth and disruptive innovation. For decades, the industry's primary directive has been to scale quickly, connect the world, and push the boundaries of what is digitally possible. 

However, as the digital ecosystem becomes the foundational infrastructure of global society, the definition of tech leadership must evolve. At Akamai, we believe that true leadership requires pairing that historic forward momentum with an equally fierce commitment to long-term resilience, security, and operational excellence.

It is with this vision of accountable progress that we are proud to announce the release of our 2025 Sustainability Report.

This report is far from a passive, box-checking compliance exercise designed to sit quietly on a corporate shelf. Instead, it serves as a transparent, data-driven blueprint of our ongoing journey to shape a more responsible internet. As the company that sits at the heart of next-generation AI-driven computing, we recognize that our operational footprint carries significant responsibility. 

Over the past year, we have focused on turning ambitious climate goals into measurable actions — proving that a faster, more secure cloud can also be a more sustainable one.

Let’s look at a few of our biggest highlights from the year.

As we scaled our operations over the last year to meet global digital needs, we operated within the structural realities of today's energy grids. While the pace of global infrastructure decarbonization introduces external variables, our core philosophy has not changed. We remain fully committed to our long-term vision of decoupling our revenue growth from our environmental footprint by adapting proactively to market realities along the way.

We are making this happen by running a two-lever strategic correction plan:

1. The efficiency dividend (supply side). Our engineering teams continue to optimize core software to maximize operational efficiency, proactively extending the lifecycle of existing infrastructure. Concurrently, we are transitioning to next-generation server architectures designed to deliver enhanced compute density and optimized power use.

2. High-impact procurement (demand side). We are working to align our regional growth with targeted energy procurement initiatives, including virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs). This strategy focuses on supporting renewable energy attributes within key grids, contributing to regional grid transition efforts, and voluntarily matching our energy usage with new clean generation.

We believe that true environmental stewardship goes beyond basic balance-sheet metrics. Rather than relying solely on traditional renewable energy certificates to offset our footprint, our procurement strategy centers on the principle of emissionality. We intentionally direct our investments toward new wind and solar projects in regions where the local electrical grids remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels. 

By targeting these high-carbon grids, we maximize the volume of displaced emissions for every dollar invested — driving meaningful, systemic decarbonization where it is needed most and helping to accelerate the transition of the global supply chain.

In 2025, we saw a 7% increase over 2024 in the amount of renewable power used across our global network. To further accelerate this progress, we executed our first two VPPAs in Europe — specifically, to support net-new solar projects in Germany. 

We also signed an expansion of our existing solar project in Champaign County, Illinois (Prairie Solar), boosting our share from 30 megawatts (MW) to a 45 MW stake. Our portion of Prairie Solar is projected to generate roughly 77,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of clean energy and prevent 48,000 metric tons of CO₂e from entering the atmosphere each year.

As we move toward our goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2030, we’ve realized that traditional carbon accounting doesn’t always tell the whole story. We want to know if our business decisions are actually helping the planet. That’s why we developed the Consequential Logic for Impact Measurement, Action & Transparent Emissions guideline (also known as CLIMATE-2026). 

This framework is designed to move beyond “check-the-box” methods like attributional accounting to focus on the real-world consequences of our actions. Achieving a decarbonized grid requires industry-wide adoption, so we’re integrating the framework ourselves as well as making it available publicly.

We actively engage with a wide ecosystem of stakeholders to share data and build trust: 

• Listening and learning in Asia-Pacific. This past year, we expanded our listening and learning journey into the Asia-Pacific region. We engaged directly with customers and employees in Japan, Singapore, and Australia to gather feedback and funnel it back into our program.

• The Media Climate Accord. At the annual IBC show, Akamai helped launch the Media Climate Accord. This cross-industry coalition unites broadcasters, studios, streamers, and infrastructure creators under a common goal: to hit net-zero emissions by 2040 and transform the media industry into a beacon of climate innovation.

As our sustainability journey evolves, we believe that the way we share our progress should match the agility, speed, and real-time impact of our technology. In service of this vision, the 2025 edition marks our final standalone, annual sustainability report.

Compiling a traditional, static publication requires a massive investment of time and administrative resources. By transitioning away from this retrospective format, we are intentionally redirecting our team's creative energy and corporate capital directly into where it matters most: active grid impact, local decarbonization, and scalable carbon displacement. 

Moving forward, we are excited to pioneer a more dynamic, transparent approach to communicating our milestones — ensuring that our focus remains squarely on driving real-world progress in real time.

Don’t worry; our visibility isn't going away, though. Moving forward, our stakeholders can monitor our programs and progress in a digital-first format:

• The primary platform. Our sustainability platform will serve as our central hub, providing high-fidelity insights into our programs, updated on a rolling basis.

• Core corporate integration. High-level overviews of our major environmental initiatives will remain a core component of critical public reporting, such as our annual corporate Impact Report, IFRS S2, CDP, keeping our environmental progress woven into our broader corporate narrative.

We invite you to join us in this ongoing transition as we work to build a more resilient, efficient, and responsible digital frontier. Because true progress is a collaborative journey, we deeply value the partnerships, insights, and shared commitments that drive our entire ecosystem forward. 

To explore our complete findings, download the 2025 Sustainability Report, and follow our real-time milestones, visit our dedicated sustainability platform.