INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE POWERED BY THE DCA
This rapid growth was of course enabled by concurrent
development and expansion of the data centre industry, which
will continue throughout the coming decade.
Looking forward to 2030, if these
changes as well as others are instigated,
the potential for positive economic,
environmental and social impacts
deriving from a sectoral Circular
Economy are considerable.
and increase prices, which will adversely
affect the data centre industry. Current
anecdotal evidence also indicates that
the component supply chain has been
disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic
at a time when reliance on data services
is even more significant than usual. These
factors in conjunction with increasingly
rapid equipment refresh rates, predicted
sectoral growth and dependence
on digital technology highlight the
importance of developing an alternative
to the linear cradle-to-grave approach,
namely a cradle-to-cradle approach; the
Deborah Andrews, London South
Bank University
Circular Economy. While the first three
product life stages are the same as those
in the Linear Economy – take resources,
make products, use products – at endof-life,
materials are not disposed of as
waste, they are recycled and reclaimed
for use in the next generation of products,
creating a closed loop.
In addition to recycling, a Circular Economy
includes strategies and practices, which
simultaneously reduce waste, extend
product life and increase resource
efficiency. These practices form the waste
hierarchy in which value declines with
each strategy/process as follows:
• Reduce embodied materials
and energy without
compromising performance
• Reuse second life market for
products ‘as is’
• Repair / re-manufacture second
life market for products that have
replacement and/or component
upgrades and are ‘as good as new’
• Recycle at end-of-life to keep
materials in the value stream for as
long as possible
• Energy from waste if recycling
isn’t possible
• Disposal in a non-hazardous process
if there is no other option
Developing a Circular Economy for
the sector is possible but is incredibly
challenging and involves rethinking many
strategies and processes, starting with
design. At present, approximately 70%
of the environmental impact of a product
is determined during the design phase
and as stated above, many data centre
products have been designed without
particular consideration of end-of-life
which makes refurbishment of many
products and components technically
difficult at best and impossible at worst.
The same is true for recycling and, as
a result, materials reclamation is also
limited; this is exacerbated by user
behaviour because of concern about
data security and many users insist on
component shredding rather than data
sanitisation via software-based and
degaussing processes for example. CRM
can be reclaimed from shreds through
heat and chemical-based procedures
but the reclamation process for one
individual material usually destroys others
and consequently, 100% reclamation
from shreds is impossible at present.
Changes to design and manufacture
should facilitate disassembly, separation,
refurbishment and recycling, which
will support development of a sectoral
Circular Economy.
For example, development of a sectorspecific
infrastructure for closed-loop
recycling and reclamation of materials
(with emphasis on CRMs and Conflict
Minerals) for the European data centre
industry will reduce export and the
environmental impact of ocean transport.
Although this will localise pollution from
road vehicles initially, it will decrease
with the use of more ultra-low and
zero-emission vehicles in Europe.
Investment in recycling processes and
infrastructure will positively accelerate
their development, which will be
economically beneficial as throughput
increases and plants expand. Although
an increasing demand for materials
may increase landfill mining, higher
22 Issue 19
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