AI Transparency
Environmental
Impact
Understanding the carbon footprint of AI in education — and what we do about it.
Responsible AI means being honest about its costs.
Large language models require significant computing power, which consumes energy. We believe that being a responsible AI platform means being transparent about this reality — not burying it in fine print. Here is what you need to know about how Secondary AI manages its environmental footprint, and why we chose the infrastructure partners we did.
"Intentional use is inherently sustainable use."
— Our approach to environmental responsibility
Our Commitments
Five ways we take
this seriously.
Energy Consumption of AI
Every AI interaction — generating a lesson plan, running a student chatbot session, producing feedback — requires server computation that uses electricity. While a single query consumes a small amount of energy, at scale these costs add up. We don't hide this fact. Educators deserve to know that AI tools carry an environmental cost so they can make informed, intentional choices.
Google Gemini & Sustainability
Secondary AI is powered by Google Gemini, which runs on Google's data center infrastructure. Google has committed to operating on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030 and has been carbon neutral since 2007. By choosing Google as our AI provider, we benefit from one of the most energy-efficient and sustainability-focused cloud infrastructures in the world.
Efficient by Design
We design our platform to avoid unnecessary AI calls. Features like cached insights, session-based processing, and teacher-controlled AI triggers mean we only run AI computation when it genuinely serves a learning purpose — reducing waste without sacrificing quality.
Purposeful AI Use
We encourage teachers to use AI intentionally, not habitually. Every chatbot session, every generated lesson plan, and every AI-assisted grade represents a deliberate pedagogical choice — not automated busywork. This mindful approach naturally reduces unnecessary compute and keeps AI as a meaningful tool rather than background noise.
Our Commitment to Improvement
We are actively monitoring our platform's AI usage patterns and exploring ways to further reduce energy intensity — including smarter model routing, response caching, and ongoing evaluation of more efficient AI models as they become available. We will update this section as our practices evolve.
A Teaching Opportunity
Turn this into a lesson.
Teaching students to think critically about the environmental costs of technology — including AI — is itself a valuable lesson. We encourage you to use our platform as a conversation starter about digital sustainability in your classroom.
Learn More About Our Transparency
Explore how we handle data, safety, and AI governance across the platform.
AI Transparency Overview