MR-037 Governance & process Both scope

Environmental footprint of AI

Training and operating AI systems consume substantial energy, water, and materials, producing carbon emissions, e-waste, and ecosystem harm.

Risk family: Governance & process
MIT domain: 6. Socioeconomic and Environmental
MIT subdomain: 6.6 > Environmental harm
AI type: GPAI, Classical_ML, Agentic
Scope: Both
Source standard: MIT AI Risk Repository v4

Provenance

Source standard

MIT AI Risk Repository v4

Source frameworks

28 source framework citation keys

Abercrombie2024, Bengio2024, Bengio2025, Chin2025, Clarke2023, Coghlan2023, Cunha2023, EPIC2023, G'sell2024, GOS2023, Gabriel2024, Gipiškis2024, Hagendorff2024, IBM2025, Leech2024, Li2025, NIST2024, Paes2023, Saghiri2022, Shelby2023, Solaiman2023, Stahl2024, Tan2022, Tang2025, Uuk2025, Weidinger2021, Weidinger2022, Weidinger2023

ISO/IEC references

23894 obj A.5; src 9; mech B.6 | 42001 ctrl A.4.5

Framework crosswalk

Every framework item mapped to this risk. Items marked partial overlap only in part; definitions appear on hover where the source licence permits.

Sourcesframeworks that contributed to the register

ISO 238941

A.5 ISO/IEC 23894 Annex A A.5

ISO 420011

A.4.5 ISO/IEC 42001 Annex A A.4.5

Cross-checksframeworks mapped in to test coverage

IBM3

ibm-ai-agents-impact-on-environment AI agents' impact on environment
ibm-impact-on-the-environment Impact on the environment
ibm-redundant-actions Redundant actions partial

NIST GenAI1

GENAI.5 Environmental Impacts

More in Governance & process

MR-042 MR-043 MR-045 MR-046 MR-054 MR-062 MR-063 MR-066 MR-067 MR-068 MR-069 MR-070

Part of the Deployer AI Risk Register, an open-source resource developed by MindXO. Version 1.0, 3 July 2026. Derived from the MIT AI Risk Repository (V4, December 2025) under CC BY 4.0; an independent derivative work, not endorsed by or affiliated with MIT. Sub-risk decomposition references MITRE ATLAS™ v5.6.0 (© 2021-2026 The MITRE Corporation, reproduced and distributed with permission). ISO/IEC and EU AI Act references are by number only. License: CC BY 4.0. Full attribution and licensing.