Malcolm Howe, Technical Partner, Critical Systems, Cundall, underscores the crucial role of ecological strategies in propelling us towards greener operations and securing a competitive edge. Though a steady pace has its merits for longevity, perhaps now is the moment to break into a sprint.
The scrutiny of data centres is rising, which is driven by both governmental regulations and the growing expectations of end-users. Organisations working in data management must confront the challenge of expanding their capacity while navigating stringent carbon-related legislation.
All industries are facing a pressing dilemma. As the world is rapidly digitalising, investing in infrastructure that can handle substantial workloads has gone from a competitive advantage to a necessity. Simultaneously, there is a heightened awareness regarding the environmental impact of carbon emissions, compelling organisations to move toward sustainable practices.
For data centres, this poses a distinctive challenge that demands a change in mindset: How can we increase capacity while still aligning with sustainability goals?
The importance of data centres in shaping our daily lives cannot be overstated. They facilitate essential activities such as online banking, shopping and remote work, and are instrumental in bringing future technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and self-driving cars into the mainstream. However, their current environmental footprint is significant. Traditional data centres consume substantial amounts of electricity and water while generating considerable carbon emissions during both development and operation phases.
Consequently, finding a balance between expanding capacity and aligning with legislative, sustainability benchmarks is the biggest challenge to the industry entering 2024.
Larger strides, smaller footprints
The modern data centre has undergone a transformation from its earlier iterations. Once a rare, smaller and more discreet entity, the data centre has evolved, spurred by the surge in online activities such as social media and the broader trend of digitalisation.
Over the past decade, the internet and other digital services have fuelled an unprecedented demand for data, with many likening it to the new oil. As a result, the data centre has emerged as one of the most valuable infrastructures today. This, however, comes with challenges.
The prominence of data centres has grown exponentially, both in quality and visibility; this elevated status in the public eye grants heightened awareness regarding the environmental impact of data centres. Consequently, organisations involved in the construction and maintenance of data centres find themselves designing strategies to meet environmental targets as well as performance. While advancements in energy and water efficiency technologies have occurred, there remains a substantial distance to cover for organisations to make meaningful strides in reducing their carbon footprint.
Navigating regulation
The increased public awareness on sustainability has forced governments into action. Through a mixture of both national and international legislation, countries across the globe have set targets to reduce carbon emissions and limit the impact of climate change.
Most notably, through the Paris Agreement, otherwise known as the Paris Climate Accords – signed in 2016 – international climate goals were set. The agreement focused on topics related to climate change and primarily on keeping global warming to no more than 1.5°C. To achieve this, reaching net zero carbon by 2050 will be critical. With data centres traditionally producing such high volumes of carbon emissions, the industry requires change.
To their credit, governments realising the environmental impact that data centres and buildings in general have, has been a good thing. The implementation of legislation to drive improvements in energy efficiency and reduction in carbon emissions has spurred the industry to do better. For example, local planning policy targets such as BREEAM Excellent (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold provides clear targets for data centre construction companies to adhere to during the design and development phases.
As well as this, national policies ensure organisations achieve different levels of environmental legislation dependent on location. These national differences are key for larger, global organisations to be aware of during the planning phase as they will heavily impact the technologies and benchmark levels that must be developed. In the UK, the GLA’s (Great London Authority) London Plan policy highlights that all major new developments including data centres must achieve a 35% reduction in their building emissions rate (BER) relative to a target emissions rate (TER) defined by Part L Building Regulations. Having achieved that 35% reduction, the total BER must still be offset via a financial contribution to the GLA’s Carbon Offsetting Fund, so there becomes an economical benefit to leading with sustainability.
For data centre developers, there is a noteworthy update in the latest SBEM (Simplified Building Energy Model) v6.1 technical guidance. It involves the inclusion of cooling energy linked to the IT process load in the calculation currently based upon a notional ‘unregulated energy’ load of 500W/m2. While this allowance is likely to be much less than the actual energy usage of the IT equipment, it still adds a substantial amount to the overall energy consumption considered in the compliance modelling. Even in a facility with an efficient cooling system, this will result in a greater Building Emission Rate (BER), meaning increased carbon offsetting costs for the developer.
What is the rest of the world doing?
With the landscape of the sustainable data centres evolving, it is not just London and the UK reshaping industry practices. Regions such as the Nordics are innovating by requiring data centres to contribute waste heat to local district heating infrastructure. While this may not directly reduce emissions, it signifies a key step toward decarbonising communities that have relied upon fossil fuels for their heating infrastructure.
The European Union (EU) is also spearheading change through a mix of regulatory and voluntary schemes. There is a particular focus on energy efficiency as shown by the EU Eco-Design Regulations which are targeting servers and data storage products. The changes have created a push towards green infrastructure so that the countries hit their carbon neutrality targets by 2050.
Globally, trends are emerging from Ireland and the Netherlands which have imposed temporary prohibitions on new data centre developments to relieve pressure on over-stretched power grids, forcing developers to explore solutions like off-site renewables or on-site generation. As well as this, in the APAC region, countries like Singapore and China are placing a greater emphasis on Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).
These global changes at the governmental level indicate that the data centre industry needs to adapt – and quickly. Whilst the move to achieving net zero carbon is a journey, meeting the increasing demand for capacity alongside these goals will be a challenge. We cannot wait until the eleventh hour. The time to start is now.
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