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From one machine to the whole estate
How GreenDot measures energy at source
Deciding to measure energy properly is the easy part. The practical question comes next: how far can measurement actually reach? From one machine to a whole site, from a laptop to a lighting rig, from one building to operations in several countries.
We've written before about why a baseline built on estimates won't hold up, and about what changed at IBC when people saw live data for themselves. This piece is about the how: what GreenDot™ connects to, what you see once it does, and how it turns readings into carbon.
GreenDot, built by Dot Group, collects energy data from your equipment continuously, at device level, and uses tariffs and emissions factors to calculate the associated cost and CO₂e. The picture you work from is the one your kit is actually producing. Its modern architecture lets it sit alongside the tools you already use.
How it reaches the whole estate
At its core, GreenDot uses a lightweight collector that runs as a service. It’s outbound-only, so it pushes data out and cannot accept inbound connections, and it has been designed to fit in with your IT security policies. It runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and virtual machines.
Most estates are much more than laptops and servers. GreenDot has an open API, so you can connect specialist equipment across your estate.
From the whole estate to a single machine
Everything lands in one dashboard. A world map shows each location as an office, a home or a data centre, colour-coded so rising consumption or a device that needs attention stands out. From there you drill down by country, region, site and individual server. You can start with a global view and end on one machine's live reading without changing tools.
GreenDot also accounts for the fact that the same device has a different footprint depending on where it’s plugged in. It defaults to each region’s published carbon factor. Where technology providers publish their own factors, you can override the regional default, so a data centre on a cleaner grid gets the credit rather than being averaged out.
Measured activity, calculated emissions
Spend-based accounting starts from money and works backwards to emissions. It’s an accepted method where better data isn’t available. But the MTSS Summit panel kept coming back to the same shift in July: from spend-based approximation to activity-based measurement. MTSS has since become the Media Climate Accord.
GreenDot starts from the equipment instead: device, watts, kWh, time, location, grid factor, CO₂e. It measures the activity and calculates the emissions. Converting kWh into CO₂e still needs an emissions factor, so no operational tool measures carbon end to end. GreenDot enables you to build a much stronger foundation for that calculation.
Answers in plain language
Not every organisation has the luxury of a dedicated sustainability specialist, so GreenDot includes DEO, GreenDot’s Digital Energy Officer, as an optional extra. DEO is an AI assistant that answers questions about your own data in plain language and helps you generate the reports needed for compliance.
Cost and carbon, one number
Once you know what each device is actually consuming, the same measured energy use underpins both cost and carbon calculations, helping you understand the financial and emissions impact of avoidable waste. Two perspectives on the same measured data. That's what makes measurement worth starting with.
Find out how you can cut costs and carbon at the same time.