Eur. Phys. J. C (2025) 85: 1397
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-14976-3

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

The environmental impact, carbon emissions and sustainability of computing in the ATLAS experiment

¹ Department of Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
² Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
³ Department of Physics, Ankara University, Ankara, Türkiye
⁴ Division of Physics, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Türkiye
⁵ LAPP, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS/IN2P3, Annecy, France
⁶ APC, Université Paris Cité, CNRS/IN2P3, Paris, France
⁷ High Energy Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
⁸ Department of Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
⁹ Department of Physics, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA
¹⁰ Physics Department, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
¹¹ Physics Department, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou, Greece
¹² Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
¹³ Institute of Physics, Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan
¹⁴ Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain
¹⁵ Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
¹⁶ Physics Department, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
¹⁷ Institute of Physics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
¹⁸ Department for Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
¹⁹ Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
²⁰ University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
²¹ Institut für Physik, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
²² Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics and Laboratory for High Energy Physics, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
²³ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
²⁴ Department of Physics, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Türkiye
²⁵ Department of Physics Engineering, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Türkiye
²⁶ Department of Physics, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Türkiye
²⁷ Facultad de Ciencias y Centro de Investigaciónes, Universidad Antonio Nariño, Bogotá, Colombia
²⁸ Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
²⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia A. Righi, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
³⁰ INFN Sezione di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
³¹ Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany
³² Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
³³ Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA
³⁴ Transilvania University of Brasov, Brasov, Romania
³⁵ Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
³⁶ Department of Physics, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Iasi, Romania
³⁷ Physics Department, National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
³⁸ National University of Science and Technology Politechnica, Bucharest, Romania
³⁹ West University in Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania
⁴⁰ Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
⁴¹ Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
⁴² Department of Subnuclear Physics, Institute of Experimental Physics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Kosice, Slovak Republic
⁴³ Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA
⁴⁴ Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Física, y CONICET, Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (IFIBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
⁴⁵ California State University, Long Beach, CA, USA
⁴⁶ Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
⁴⁷ Department of Physics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
⁴⁸ iThemba Labs, Western Cape, South Africa
⁴⁹ Department of Mechanical Engineering Science, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
⁵⁰ National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Philippines
⁵¹ Department of Physics, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa
⁵² Department of Physics, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
⁵³ University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa, South Africa
⁵⁴ School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
⁵⁵ Department of Physics, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
⁵⁶ Faculté des Sciences Ain Chock, Université Hassan II de Casablanca, Casablanca, Morocco
⁵⁷ Faculté des Sciences, Université Ibn-Tofail, Kénitra, Morocco
⁵⁸ Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, Université Cadi Ayyad, LPHEA-Marrakech, Marrakech, Morocco
⁵⁹ LPMR, Faculté des Sciences, Université Mohamed Premier, Oujda, Morocco
⁶⁰ Faculté des sciences, Université Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco
⁶¹ Institute of Applied Physics, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco
⁶² CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
⁶³ CERN Tier-0, Geneva, Switzerland
⁶⁴ Affiliated with an Institute Formerly Covered by a Cooperation Agreement with CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
⁶⁵ Affiliated with an International Laboratory Covered by a Cooperation Agreement with CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
⁶⁶ Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
⁶⁷ LPC, Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS/IN2P3, Clermont-Ferrand, France
⁶⁸ Nevis Laboratory, Columbia University, Irvington, NY, USA
⁶⁹ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
⁷⁰ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria, Rende, Italy
⁷¹ INFN Gruppo Collegato di Cosenza, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, Italy
⁷² Physics Department, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA
⁷³ National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”’, Agia Paraskevi, Greece
⁷⁴ Department of Physics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
⁷⁵ Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm, Sweden
⁷⁶ Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg and Zeuthen, Germany
⁷⁷ Fakultät Physik, Technische Universität Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
⁷⁸ Institut für Kern- und Teilchenphysik, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
⁷⁹ Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
⁸⁰ SUPA-School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
⁸¹ INFN e Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, Italy
⁸² Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
⁸³ II. Physikalisches Institut, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
⁸⁴ Département de Physique Nucléaire et Corpusculaire, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
⁸⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, Genoa, Italy
⁸⁶ INFN Sezione di Genova, Genoa, Italy
⁸⁷ II. Physikalisches Institut, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Giessen, Germany
⁸⁸ SUPA-School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
⁸⁹ LPSC, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS/IN2P3, Grenoble INP, Grenoble, France
⁹⁰ Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
⁹¹ Department of Modern Physics and State Key Laboratory of Particle Detection and Electronics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
⁹² Kirchhoff-Institut für Physik, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
⁹³ Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
⁹⁴ Department of Physics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, China
⁹⁵ Department of Physics, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
⁹⁶ Department of Physics and Institute for Advanced Study, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
⁹⁷ Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
⁹⁸ IJCLab, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, 91405, Orsay, France
⁹⁹ Centro Nacional de Microelectrónica (IMB-CNM-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
¹⁰⁰ Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
¹⁰¹ INFN Gruppo Collegato di Udine, Sezione di Trieste, Udine, Italy
¹⁰² ICTP, Trieste, Italy
¹⁰³ Dipartimento Politecnico di Ingegneria e Architettura, Università di Udine, Udine, Italy
¹⁰⁴ INFN Sezione di Lecce, Lecce, Italy
¹⁰⁵ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy
¹⁰⁶ INFN Sezione di Milano, Milan, Italy
¹⁰⁷ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano, Milan, Italy
¹⁰⁸ INFN Sezione di Napoli, Naples, Italy
¹⁰⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Napoli, Naples, Italy
¹¹⁰ INFN Sezione di Pavia, Pavia, Italy
¹¹¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy
¹¹² INFN Sezione di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
¹¹³ Dipartimento di Fisica E. Fermi, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
¹¹⁴ INFN Sezione di Roma, Rome, Italy
¹¹⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
¹¹⁶ INFN Sezione di Roma Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
¹¹⁷ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
¹¹⁸ INFN Sezione di Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
¹¹⁹ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
¹²⁰ INFN-TIFPA, Povo, Italy
¹²¹ Università degli Studi di Trento, Trento, Italy
¹²² Department of Astro and Particle Physics, Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
¹²³ University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
¹²⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
¹²⁵ Istinye University, Sariyer, Istanbul, Türkiye
¹²⁶ Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Juiz de Fora, Brazil
¹²⁷ Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro COPPE/EE/IF, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
¹²⁸ Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
¹²⁹ Rio de Janeiro State University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
¹³⁰ Federal University of Bahia, Bahia, Brazil
¹³¹ KEK, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Tsukuba, Japan
¹³² Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan
¹³³ AGH University of Krakow, Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, Krakow, Poland
¹³⁴ Marian Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
¹³⁵ Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland
¹³⁶ Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
¹³⁷ University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
¹³⁸ Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
¹³⁹ Research Center for Advanced Particle Physics and Department of Physics, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
¹⁴⁰ L2IT, Université de Toulouse, CNRS/IN2P3, UPS, Toulouse, France
¹⁴¹ Instituto de Física La Plata, Universidad Nacional de La Plata and CONICET, La Plata, Argentina
¹⁴² Physics Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
¹⁴³ Oliver Lodge Laboratory, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
¹⁴⁴ Department of Experimental Particle Physics, Jožef Stefan Institute and Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
¹⁴⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
¹⁴⁶ Department of Physics, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK
¹⁴⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, UK
¹⁴⁸ Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA, USA
¹⁴⁹ Fysiska institutionen, Lunds universitet, Lund, Sweden
¹⁵⁰ Departamento de Física Teorica C-15 and CIAFF, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
¹⁵¹ Institut für Physik, Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany
¹⁵² School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
¹⁵³ CPPM, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS/IN2P3, Marseille, France
¹⁵⁴ Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
¹⁵⁵ Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
¹⁵⁶ School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
¹⁵⁷ Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
¹⁵⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
¹⁵⁹ Group of Particle Physics, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
¹⁶⁰ Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
¹⁶¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut), Munich, Germany
¹⁶² Graduate School of Science and Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
¹⁶³ Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
¹⁶⁴ School of Science, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
¹⁶⁵ University of Chinese Academy of Science (UCAS), Beijing, China
¹⁶⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
¹⁶⁷ Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics, Radboud University/Nikhef, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
¹⁶⁸ Nikhef National Institute for Subatomic Physics and University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
¹⁶⁹ Department of Physics, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA
¹⁷⁰ New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
¹⁷¹ United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
¹⁷² Department of Physics, New York University, New York, NY, USA
¹⁷³ Ochanomizu University, Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
¹⁷⁴ Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
¹⁷⁵ Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
¹⁷⁶ Department of Physics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
¹⁷⁷ Palacký University, Joint Laboratory of Optics, Olomouc, Czech Republic
¹⁷⁸ Institute for Fundamental Science, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
¹⁷⁹ Graduate School of Science, University of Osaka, Osaka, Japan
¹⁸⁰ Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
¹⁸¹ Department of Physics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
¹⁸² LPNHE, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CNRS/IN2P3, Paris, France
¹⁸³ Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
¹⁸⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
¹⁸⁵ Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas-LIP, Lisbon, Portugal
¹⁸⁶ Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
¹⁸⁷ Departamento de Física, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
¹⁸⁸ Centro de Física Nuclear da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
¹⁸⁹ Departamento de Física, Escola de Ciências, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal
¹⁹⁰ Departamento de Física Teórica y del Cosmos, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
¹⁹¹ Departamento de Física, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
¹⁹² Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
¹⁹³ Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
¹⁹⁴ Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Prague, Czech Republic
¹⁹⁵ Particle Physics Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK
¹⁹⁶ IRFU, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹⁹⁷ Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
¹⁹⁸ Departamento de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
¹⁹⁹ Millennium Institute for Subatomic physics at high energy frontier (SAPHIR), Santiago, Chile
²⁰⁰ Instituto de Investigación Multidisciplinario en Ciencia y Tecnología y Departamento de Física, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile
²⁰¹ Department of Physics, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile
²⁰² Universidad San Sebastian, Recoleta, Chile
²⁰³ Instituto de Alta Investigación, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile
²⁰⁴ Departamento de Física, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile
²⁰⁵ Department of Physics, Institute of Science, Tokyo, Japan
²⁰⁶ Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
²⁰⁷ Institute of Frontier and Interdisciplinary Science and Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (MOE), Shandong University, Qingdao, China
²⁰⁸ School of Physics, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
²⁰⁹ State Key Laboratory of Dark Matter Physics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (MOE), SKLPPC, Shanghai, China
²¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Dark Matter Physics, Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
²¹¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
²¹² Department of Physics, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan
²¹³ Department Physik, Universität Siegen, Siegen, Germany
²¹⁴ Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
²¹⁵ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford, CA, USA
²¹⁶ Department of Physics, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
²¹⁷ Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
²¹⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
²¹⁹ School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
²²⁰ Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
²²¹ E. Andronikashvili Institute of Physics, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
²²² High Energy Physics Institute, Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
²²³ University of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia
²²⁴ Department of Physics, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
²²⁵ Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
²²⁶ Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
²²⁷ International Center for Elementary Particle Physics and Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
²²⁸ Graduate School of Science and Technology, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan
²²⁹ Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
²³⁰ TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC, Canada
²³¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
²³² Division of Physics and Tomonaga Center for the History of the Universe, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
²³³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
²³⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
²³⁵ University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
²³⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden
²³⁷ Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA
²³⁸ Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC), Centro Mixto Universidad de Valencia - CSIC, Valencia, Spain
²³⁹ Department of Physics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
²⁴⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
²⁴¹ Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
²⁴² Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
²⁴³ Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
²⁴⁴ Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
²⁴⁵ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
²⁴⁶ Fakultät für Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, Fachgruppe Physik, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
²⁴⁷ Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
²⁴⁸ Yerevan Physics Institute, Yerevan, Armenia
²⁴⁹ Affiliated with an Institute Formerly Covered by a Cooperation Agreement with CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
²⁵⁰ An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
²⁵¹ Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
²⁵² Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI-AUTH), Thessaloniki, Greece
²⁵³ Centre of Physics of the Universities of Minho and Porto (CF-UM-UP), Gualtar, Portugal
²⁵⁴ CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
²⁵⁵ Département de Physique Nucléaire et Corpusculaire, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
²⁵⁶ Departament de Fisica de la Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
²⁵⁷ Department of Financial and Management Engineering, University of the Aegean, Chios, Greece
²⁵⁸ Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
²⁵⁹ Department of Modern Physics and State Key Laboratory of Particle Detection and Electronics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
²⁶⁰ Department of Physics, Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University, Bolu, Türkiye
²⁶¹ Department of Physics, King’s College London, London, UK
²⁶² Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
²⁶³ Department of Physics, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
²⁶⁴ Department of Physics, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
²⁶⁵ Department of Physics, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
²⁶⁶ Department of Physics, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, USA
²⁶⁷ Faculty of Physics, Sofia University, ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’, Sofia, Bulgaria
²⁶⁸ Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
²⁶⁹ Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece
²⁷⁰ Henan University, Kaifeng, China
²⁷¹ Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
²⁷² Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats, ICREA, Barcelona, Spain
²⁷³ Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
²⁷⁴ Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE) of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
²⁷⁵ Institute of Applied Physics, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco
²⁷⁶ Institute of Particle Physics (IPP), Toronto, Canada
²⁷⁷ Institute of Physics and Technology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
²⁷⁸ Institute of Physics, Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan
²⁷⁹ Institute of Theoretical Physics, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
²⁸⁰ National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Philippines
²⁸¹ The Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter (CICQM), Beijing, China
²⁸² TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC, Canada
²⁸³ Università di Napoli Parthenope, Naples, Italy
²⁸⁴ Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
²⁸⁵ University of Siena, Siena, Italy
²⁸⁶ Washington College, Chestertown, MD, USA
²⁸⁷ Physics Department, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Türkiye
²⁸⁸ Associated to Department of Computer Science, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
²⁸⁹ Associated to Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
²⁹⁰ Associated to School of Computer Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
²⁹¹ CERN, 1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland

^a atlas.publications@cern.ch

Received: 14 May 2025
Accepted: 22 October 2025
Published online: 9 December 2025

Abstract

ATLAS, a general-purpose experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), makes use of a large internationally-distributed computing infrastructure, including over ${10}^6$ TB of managed data on disk and tape and almost one million simultaneously running CPU cores. Upgrades for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) will increase the required computing resources by a factor of 3–4 by the beginning of the 2030s, and by an order of magnitude before the conclusion of data taking at the beginning of the 2040s. These resources are spread over around 100 computing sites worldwide. Efforts are underway within the experiment to evaluate and mitigate various aspects of the environmental impact of the sites, with the additional long-term goal of making recommendations to the sites that will significantly reduce the total expected environmental impact in the HL-LHC era. These efforts take several forms: building awareness in the experiment community, adjusting aspects of the computing policy, and modifications of data center configurations, either in ways that take advantage of particular features of ATLAS workloads or in generic ways that reduce the environmental impact of the computing resources. This paper describes the ongoing investigations and approaches that have already provided useful and actionable outcomes.