As of September 3, 2026

Customers of the basebox platform receive an annual report on energy consumption and emissions resulting from their use of the platform. This page describes what the report contains, how the figures are calculated, and their limitations.

The company’s comprehensive sustainability report can be found at basebox.ai/nachhaltigkeitsbericht.

What the Report Includes

1. Aggregated Energy and CO₂ Figures

The report shows the estimated total energy consumption and the resulting CO₂ emissions from platform usage for the reporting period. These figures are based on the organization’s actual query volume, not a flat average.

2. Breakdown by Models and Services

The figures are reported separately for each model and service used. The following are presented:

• Number of requests per model

• Energy consumption and CO₂ emissions per model

• Share of the organization’s total consumption

• Text generation, image generation, transcription, and web search reported separately

This breakdown is the most practically useful part of the report. For comparable requests, the difference between the most energy-efficient and the most energy-intensive text model is roughly a factor of ten. Understanding how your own requests are distributed allows you to consciously leverage this factor.

3. Data Center Metrics

The following are reported for each location used during the reporting period:

• PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness)

• Percentage of renewable energy in the purchased electricity

• Existing Certifications

• Location and Operator

If these metrics change over the course of the year—for example, due to a change in location or updated provider information—the change is noted.

4. Trends Over Time

Starting with the second reporting period, trends compared to the previous year are presented: total consumption, consumption per request, and shifts in model usage. This makes it clear whether efficiency measures are having an effect.

This section is omitted for the first reporting period because no comparative value is yet available.

5. Reduction Measures

The report lists the measures implemented during the reporting period as well as those planned for the following year to reduce energy consumption and emissions. These include changes to the infrastructure, model selection, and the platform itself.

How the Values Are Calculated

The calculation follows the same formula for each query:

Energy consumption of the query × PUE of the data center × Emission factor of the electricity mix

The three factors in detail:

Energy consumption of the query. Depends on the model, the length of the input and the response, and whether computationally intensive functions such as reasoning are used. For self-hosted inference, measured values will be available starting in November 2026; for externally hosted models, estimated values based on model size and computation time are used.

Data center PUE. A metric published by the respective operator. It describes how much energy is consumed for cooling and infrastructure in addition to pure computing power.

Emissions factor of the electricity mix. For locations with verified green electricity procurement, the correspondingly lower factor is applied; otherwise, the factor of the national grid mix is used. Where a provider offsets emissions through carbon credits but grid electricity is physically supplied at the location, the more conservative assumption is used.

Limitations of the Analysis

basebox openly discloses what these figures do and do not represent.

These are predominantly estimates. Most model providers do not publish consumption data for inference. Reliable, independently verified figures are only available to a limited extent across the industry. basebox therefore discloses the basis for its calculations so that the values remain traceable, rather than presenting them as measured values.

Emissions from model training are not included. These occur once at the model provider’s end and cannot be meaningfully attributed to a single instance of use. To the extent that providers publish training data, this is disclosed for informational purposes in the sustainability report.

No key metrics are available for individual services. Where a provider publishes neither PUE nor energy mix, this is noted as such in the reporting and is not replaced by an estimated value.

Consumption per request varies considerably. A short query and an analysis of a large document differ by orders of magnitude. Aggregated annual values balance this out; individual requests cannot therefore be evaluated.

Timeline and Delivery

The report is prepared for the first time for the first full contract year and is updated annually thereafter. It is provided in electronic form to the contact person named in the contract.

basebox is currently setting up its own energy and utilization monitoring system. The goal is to gradually replace estimated values with measured values. Once the inference infrastructure goes live in November 2026, this will be technically possible for the in-house operated portion.

Questions regarding sustainability reporting: support@basebox.ai