System and method for limiting carbon dioxide footprint caused by installation of software and firmware updates

A method of optimizing carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint caused by firmware or software updates at a first client information handling system comprising:

• gathering, via a processor executing code instructions, recent telemetry describing power consumption and usage of hardware component resources during a recent execution of a firmware driver over a recent monitoring period at a recent geographic location, and current telemetry during a current execution of the firmware driver at a current geographic location;
• determining, via the processor executing code instructions, an execution CO2 emissions comparison index value describing a difference between CO2 emitted due to the recent or current execution of the firmware driver relative to the CO2 emitted due to an execution of the software application at an optimal efficiency observed during a testing period or due to a modelled, expected performance of the firmware driver after installation of an available update;
• determining, via the processor executing code instructions, an installation CO2 emissions comparison index value describing an estimated CO2 emissions value associated with an installation process of the available update at the current geographic location, based on a benchmark update installation time value;
• and
• displaying, via a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display device, a first recommendation to a user of the first client information handling system to delay installation of the available update if the installation CO2 emissions comparison index value exceeds the execution CO2 emissions comparison index value, indicating installation of the available update will result in emission of more CO2 than it will conserve;
• and
• proceeding with the installation of the available update at the first client information handling system, via the processor, when the installation CO2 emissions comparison index value is below the execution CO2 emissions comparison index value indicating that the installation process of the available update will conserve emission of CO2.

An update carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint optimization system operating on a first client information handling system comprising:

• a processor executing update CO2 footprint optimization system code instructions to:
• gather recent telemetry describing power consumption and usage of hardware component resources during a recent execution of a software application over a recent monitoring period at a recent geographic location, and current telemetry during a current execution of the software application at a current geographic location;
• determine an execution CO2 emissions comparison index value describing a difference between CO2 emitted due to the recent execution or a current execution of the software application relative to CO2 emitted due to an execution of the software application at an optimal efficiency observed during a testing period or due to a modelled, expected performance of the software application after installation of an available update;
• determine an installation CO2 emissions comparison index value describing an estimated CO2 emissions value associated with an installation process of the available update at the current geographic location, based on a benchmark update installation time value;
• determine a recent distributed power CO2 emissions value describing CO2 emitted per Watt generated at the recent geographic location differs from a current distributed power CO2 emissions value for the current geographic location by a location-based threshold value;
• and
• a graphical user interface (GUI) displaying on a display device a first recommendation to a user of the first client information handling system to delay installation of the available update until the first client information handling system is in a new geographic location associated with a new distributed power CO2 emissions value;
• and
• the processor proceeding with the installation of the available update when the first client information handling system is detected in the new geographic location associated with the new distributed power CO2 emissions value.