SUSTAINABILITY
centres not “ on the road to net zero ” are the exception that proves the rule - something Cantell notes is largely due to the increasing unification of environmental sustainability and good financial sense .
“ Sustainability efforts aren ’ t based on corporate altruism ; they are also important for the bottom line ,” he says . “ This alignment between profit and social purpose will only serve to help the data centre industry drive real progress towards sustainability , creating strong incentives and the support to do so . But we should be realistic about what ’ s currently being achieved , and just how far we still need to go .”
To get a better idea of how much of a gap might exist between where we appear to be and how far the data centre industry might have to go , I spoke to Max Schulz , a director at the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance . “ At the moment , the majority of net-zero and carbon-neutral claims are based on electricity and are made ‘ green ’ through certificates like guarantees of origin
( GoOs ) and power purchase agreements ( PPAs ) - buying the output of a wind park , financially ,” he explains . “ However we see almost no real effort to reduce the real physical impact of data centres , which includes making efforts to reduce the baseload requirements of data centres , meaning reducing the requirement of 100 % available , 24 / 7 power , which can not
“This alignment between profit and social purpose will only serve to help the data centre industry drive real progress towards sustainability ”
TATE CANTRELL CTO , VERNE GLOBAL datacentremagazine . com 83