Intelligent Data Centres Issue 39 | Page 63

UNCOVERING THE LAYERS
Andrew Gomarsall MBE , Executive Chairman , N2S
Reporting on the rise
Currently , far too many assets are dumped in landfill rather than recycled , creating toxic gases . This is due to a fundamental flaw in the recording and tracking of e-waste – only 15 % currently generated globally each year is formally accounted for . Compounding the problem , recycling of equipment traditionally comes with a large carbon footprint – especially PCBSs . These often travel thousands of miles to refineries in Africa and Asia to be incinerated . Clearly , therefore , environmental impact reporting throughout the IT technology life cycle must be a core component of keeping data centre energy usage , emissions and asset usage on track .
A dashboard reporting system demonstrating how an organisation is contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals will lead to best practice – by reporting data on the weight and volumes of technology reused , resold and recycled . Sciencebased metrics will also provide data on environmental impacts around savings and sustainability which can be visualised and converted into actionable information to help reduce emissions .
This type of comprehensive reporting becomes even more vital once Scope 3 emissions disclosure becomes mandatory , which will demand evidence of products and service life cycles end-to-end . As supply chain sustainability draws increased attention www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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