INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE
How data centres can take a more active role in decarbonising the industry
As the deadline for climate neutrality nears , the lack of renewable strategies seeks to cause issues for data centre owners and operators . Richard Churchill , Director of Sales , n2s , discusses the impact of a truly circular IT asset and life cycle management regime and how conserving precious resources will aid ethical and sustainable practices .
Most data centre owners and operators are well aware of the necessity to implement carbon emission savings strategies . Most leading operators now offer customers 100 % renewably sourced energy options and are leveraging more intelligent water and energy-saving cooling solutions . A few are evaluating new types of fuel sources including cells and even vegetable oil in place of diesel for backup generators . Direct connection to solar and wind energy via on-site battery storage is a further welcome initiative . Adherence to sustainable practices for buildings construction , operation and maintenance – BREEAM for example – is also increasingly common in the industry .
Especially with more onerous Scope 3 emissions compliance looming which will encompass the entire data centre supply / value chain .
Those that fall short risk the potential of fines , reputational damage and losing business . By the same token those that succeed in managing and continuously proving their carbon emission reduction credentials stand to gain significant competitive advantage .
Richard Churchill , Director of Sales , n2s
are responsible for sourcing the kit , all data centres are heavily impacted by the sustainability policies and actions of
Those that succeed in managing and continuously proving their carbon emission reduction credentials stand to gain significant competitive advantage .
However , to reach climate neutrality by 2030 , in line with the EU Climate Change Pact Agreement and Net Zero by 2050 , there ’ s still much to do . The clock is ticking towards mandatory and far more measurable climate change commitments . Meeting Scope 1 and 2 is one thing which is largely within the control of the data centre owner or operator in terms of direct and indirect emissions produced from energy owned or purchased . But maintaining control of energy consumption and carbon emissions while keeping pace with exponential demand for compute and storage is a tall order .
Searching for clues
The solution lies in achieving a fully sustainable , truly circular and accountable IT asset life cycle management regime . This remains the major untapped area for data centres and the wider IT industry to decarbonise and comply with Scope 3 .
This is a challenge . While owners of onpremises data centres may have direct control over purchasing of IT assets , compared to third-party operators whose customers and / or lease finance providers the technology hardware manufacturers . Those of their distributors , systems integrators and resellers too . They are all part of the supply / value chain .
Unfortunately , too many manufacturers are still lacking when it comes to offering modular upgrades of equipment , leading to the rip-and-replace culture for hardware assets such as servers , PCs , laptops , network kit and cabling every three-to-five years . The underlying issue so far is there ’ s little or no incentive ( financial or legislative ) for manufacturers
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