Sustainability efforts gaining traction in data center sector

When one of the world’s largest social media companies completes a data center expansion in Mesa, Arizona, it will be among the world’s most advanced energy- and water-efficient data centers.

Fully powered by renewable solar energy, the 2.5 million-square-foot building will aim to use 60% less water than a typical data center. Efforts include recycling rainwater and funding a mile-long pipeline to replace an open ditch prone to evaporation.

The project is one of many in a sector increasingly in the spotlight for energy consumption. Data centers are critical nodes in an increasingly digital world. But unfortunately, they also require massive amounts of energy to run. 

So new sustainability projects, alongside regulations, are ramping up. 

In Dublin, a large colocation data center plans to build an underground piping system to move heat waste from its facility to power a nearby hospital and university. In the Philippines, SpaceDC’s MNL1 development will be entirely powered by wind and geothermal supply. A software giant pioneer made history when it put a data center in the ocean. And last year marked the first-time deployment of a conventional data center in outer space.

While large enterprise and colocation companies are exploring new technologies in the push for sustainability, Colm Shorten, JLL Data Centres EMEA senior director, says many still struggle to get below the global average for power usage effectiveness, with no road map on how to get there.

While some of the most sophisticated organizations already capture Scope 1 and 2 data at a high level, Mat Chamish, JLL director of Energy and Sustainability Services, says understanding emission baselines, getting data, and developing processes remain challenging.

According to JLL research, 80 to 90% of data center operators have expressed the importance of sustainability goals in their CSR or ESG reports; yet less than half (about 40%) have a solidified plan to make their facilities climate-neutral by 2030.

In addition, Uptime Institute recently reported a considerable discrepancy in data tracking, saying that while 82% of organizations surveyed tracked energy centrally, only about 33 tracked emissions.

“Right now, many organizations are just trying to understand what their baseline is relative to their client’s goals, what targets they should be setting, and where their data is housed before they start collecting it on an ongoing basis,” Chamish says.

“But their clients are demanding more. They want to know where they’re going and how fast they’re getting there. So that’s what’s moving the market,” Chamish adds. “And when you have the U.S. SEC proposing rule changes that will require carbon emissions disclosures, it certainly accelerates change.”