It’s not rocket science: Moving beyond renewable offsets

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Summary

The pressure is on to improve data center sustainability, and that is not going away. Data center builders and operators can improve sustainability in many ways beyond buying carbon offset credits for renewable energy.

Sustainability was a high-profile theme at Data Center World 2023 and the collocated DC BUILD conference. Of note were presentations from three industry veterans:

• Phill Lawson-Shanks, Chief Innovation & Technology Officer at Aligned Data Centers (Aligned)
• Ben Stewart, Senior Vice President for Operations at NTT Globa Data Centers
• Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass Datacenters

This analyst opinion is among three articles on these industry veterans’ pragmatic messages and practical lessons. In this installment, Omdia overviews Phill Lawson-Shanks’ remarks and insights. The Further reading section below provides the links to Omdia’s coverage of Ben Stewart’s and Chris Crosby’s insights.

Sustainable decision-making through carbon accounting and circularity

Lawson-Shanks’ presentation was “Accelerate Your Path to Net Zero Through Effective Supply Chain Decarbonization and Circular Asset Management.” It covered how a comprehensive sustainability program must evolve beyond the basics of renewable energy offsets and address operational (Scope 1 and 2) and embodied carbon (Scope 3) to make true progress toward a lower carbon future.

Getting there is not an easy task. However, in talking about the programs Aligned has put in place, Lawson-Shanks says, “It’s not rocket science; it takes discipline and a willingness from your financial backers to help you do that.” Tracking both operational and embodied carbon leads to better sustainability decision-making and outcomes.

• Operational carbon is the carbon emitted during the in-use operation of a data center. This includes Scope 1 (direct emissions created by operations) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions from grid power).
• Embodied carbon (Scope 3) includes all the raw materials and logistics for building the data center and the physical infrastructure and components necessary to commission the data center for operations.

On operational carbon, Lawson-Shanks points out that it’s time to join the ESG movement now. For many wholesale data center operators, like Aligned, this is critical now as one of the strongest customer bases is the hyperscale and larger cloud companies, and they insist. As important, more and more large customers, regardless of industry, will start demanding the same as ESG reporting becomes more pervasive and expected.

Renewables and offsets have, by some, been previously cast as greenwashing, but Lawson-Shanks points out that if you can create the need for cleaner energy in a location, that’s not a bad thing. This analyst would add that if not for Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), and companies promoting their use of renewables, the overall awareness of sustainability would not be as heightened as it is today. Most importantly, this heightened awareness has driven many companies into action.

However, improving data center operational efficiency should be on every operator’s agenda. Improving power usage effectiveness (PUE) is a primary way to be more sustainable. Operational carbon accounting puts a value on improved efficiency. Water usage effectiveness (WUE) has been an issue for some time. Yet, it has become critical in many markets in recent years because of the high-volume water use and wastewater disposal.

Operational carbon is just accounting and can be done after the fact; the hard task is embodied carbon accounting. Embodied carbon accounting is tricky as it cascades down the supply chain on many levels.

Embodied carbon includes the design and construction of any building, its fabric and materials, mechanical and electrical equipment, and other carbon sources like logistics.

Aligned participates in various programs and services to help them address embodied carbon:

• Green Building Initiative – The Green Globes program tracks everything from Aligned data center designs to construction. Green Globes staff do spot visits onsite to check how data centers are being built. Aligned received a Three Globe Award for a recent project in Chicago and plans to continue certifying all new data centers in the future.
• BuildingTransparency.org – Sponsored by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and a host of others, this service offers the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3), a database of construction Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for use in design and material procurement.
• OriginMark is an open standard developed by MOLG, a circular manufacturing company that provides material traceability. It offers transparency and value recovery opportunities in the circular economy. Aligned is working with its supply chain partners to develop lifecycle assessment (LCA) documentation, which allows them to look discretely at products or components and track embodied carbon in much more detail, as opposed to a generalized assessment of similar products.

These services contribute to carbon accounting, guiding construction and procurement, and better managing recycling and reuse of end-of-life equipment and components.

Like all these subjects, another way to improve data center operations efficiency and embodied carbon is to reduce the need for floor space and equipment. For all the unused concrete, for all the unbought racks, for all the unneeded cabling, these are all savings on embodied carbon. Additionally, all these lead to a more thoughtful approach to higher-density computing and less embodied carbon. Higher-density racks require more efficient cooling, and Aligned Delta Cube Arrays for cooling encourage customers to embrace this shift, which, in the end, should save them money as well.

Carbon accounting also gives Aligned customers a view into operational and embodied carbon across their deployments. For their customers doing full ESG reporting, this would be full Scope 3 accounting for Aligned services rendered.

Next steps in the journey

Like many things in the data center and IT industries, sustainability is not a new concept. It is in its infancy and has a long way to go before becoming a mature discipline. Rest assured, the subject is not going away for generations to come.

For readers early in their sustainability journey, the Further reading features additional highlight resources that cover some of the interesting or debatable subjects regarding sustainability. In addition, at Data Center World, AFCOM (Informa Group’s Association for Computer Operations Management) held a Leaders Lab workshop on data center sustainability. The event was an all-afternoon roundtable discussion regarding current trends and issues surrounding data center sustainability practices. The 14 attendees comprised various roles within the data center industry, including CIOs, CEOs, and CROs from a combination of colocation operators, investment firms, construction companies, hyperscalers, and more. The Further reading also includes the “Leaders Lab Executive Summary” link.

Appendix

Further reading

“Sustainability used to be about a good story: ‘It’s not that way anymore, folks’” (September 2023)

“The one dumpster data center: Practical lessons for construction sustainability” (September 2023)

“2023 Leaders Lab Executive Summary” (August 2023)

“Analyst Call: Data Center Computing for AI and Sustainability” (August 2023)

“Nuclear data centers: Public perception improves for nuclear power, but headwinds persist” (July 2023)

“DCD Silicon Valley 2023: Hydrogen versus nuclear power” (July 2023)

United States Environmental Protection Agency, “US EPA Guide to Purchasing Green Power” (retrieved August 25, 2023)

United States Environmental Protection Agency, “US EPA Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions” (retrieved August 25, 2023)

Author

Alan Howard, Principal Analyst, Cloud & Data Center Research Practice

[email protected]