EDITOR’S QUESTION
The data centre story
Around 121 million servers will be
deployed between 2019 and 2023.
Each one contains steel, aluminium and
plastic, three of the top five materials
for industrial greenhouse gas emissions
worldwide, plus copper, gold and 12 of
the 27 materials identified as in low or
politically unstable supply. Current sources
are predicted to run out within a couple
of generations and there is now talk of
turning to the seabed as an alternative. A
far better solution would be to look at how
this could be extracted and reused from
existing components.
The waste hierarchy
The waste hierarchy describes how to
extract maximum benefits from products
with minimum waste. At the top of the
inverted pyramid is ‘reduce’, the next level
is ‘reuse’ – which in enterprise IT means
reallocating servers and components
to other areas of the data centre or
transferring assets between users where
they can still be useful.
ASTRID WYNNE,
SUSTAINABILITY LEAD
AT TECHBUYER
CURRENT
SOURCES ARE
PREDICTED TO
RUN OUT WITHIN
A COUPLE OF
GENERATIONS
AND THERE IS
NOW TALK OF
TURNING TO THE
SEABED AS AN
ALTERNATIVE.
30
Issue 13
ircular Economy is about
shifting mindsets away
from owning products
towards stewardship of
long-term resources. It is
about keeping materials
in use for as long as possible to get
more from our assets. It is vital because
humanity is currently spending more than
it can afford when it comes to the planet.
C
This year, Earth Overshoot Day (when
our use of resources exceeds what Earth
can regenerate for that year) is July 29
worldwide and much earlier in developed
countries. The circular alternative would
protect raw materials supply, boost
economic growth and potentially create
580,000 jobs into the bargain, according
to the European Parliament.
As a specialist in buying, refurbishing and
selling servers, storage and networking,
Techbuyer’s strong growth is testament
to the market demand for the reuse
approach. In our sector, this is enriched
by the reconfiguration of servers and
provision of spares and upgrades.
Anything we cannot repair is passed on
to our partner recyclers who are working
hard to improve diversity and amount of
materials they can recover.
Developing a circular
economy roadmap
Techbuyer is an Associate Partner in the
CEDaCI project, a three-year collaboration
between industry and academics from the
entire supply chain for equipment in the
data centre sector. CEDaCI aims to provide
solid data on the materials usage involved,
increase recovery rates and provide a
decision-making tool for upgrades and
refreshes. The idea is that data centre
managers will have solid, researched
advice on how to make the best use of
precious IT resources. Even better news is
that it will be cost-effective too.
www.intelligentdatacentres.com