Sustainability is one of those big words that is being adopted by corporations left and right with dedicated websites that include corporate ESG goals for zero carbon emissions by year X or 100% recycling of clean water by year Y.
More specifically, a big focus is being put on reducing carbon emissions from data centers, which are energy hogs and are estimated to create 2% of the world’s carbon emissions-- about the same percentage as that of the airline industry.
Often, the work to become sustainable, or at least perceived as sustainable, gets lost in the corporate-speak vacuum. Engineers are often left with figuring out the steps to reach long-term goals in gradual increments that won’t send investors scurrying off.
“Sustainability was once about taking a journey to nice-to-have, to now. where a growing percentage of our businesses see it as a must-have,” said Joseph Reele, vice president of solution architects at Schneider Electric. “That’s not a trend, that’s a fact.”
In the past two years, Reele has been encouraged to see some big companies have moved beyond the “end justifies the means” mentality when they have produced goods that can pollute or sap up vital resources. In a recent interview with Fierce Electronics, he said one chemical company working with Schneider (that he wouldn’t name) has been spending more recently on reducing pollution in streams.
“People are trying to make a more meaningful impact, but there’s a catch,” Reele said. “At the end of the day. they are in some cases publicly-traded companies and the value of the shares must go up.” The value of sustainability can’t impact the business or the livelihoods of the people who work there.
“We are not all the way there with the impact on fiduciary responsibility,” he added. “We’re still in the position where an overwhelming percentage say if it’s not making financial sense, I’m not doing it. We’re not there yet where we’re naturally going to take a 10% premium [on a project] to make it sustainable…They say, at the end of the day, you’ve got to make money.”
Sustainable data centers
In December, Schneider jumped on the issue of sustainable data centers, issuing a framework for five key areas of environmental impact and 23 key metrics for data center operators to use in gauging their sustainability efforts.
“The industry lacks a standardized approach for implementing, measuring and reporting on environmental impact,” of data center operations, said Pankaj Sharma, executive vice president of the secure power division at Schneider in a statement at the time. “Our intention with this framework is to improve benchmarking and progress toward environmental sustainability.”
While there has been significant progress in increasing energy efficiency in data centers, digital demands are increasing, requiring the need for long-term broader sustainability initiatives, according to IDC analyst Rob Brothers. He called for clear and consistent metrics that account for efficient technology as well as reducing the consumption or destruction of natural resources such as water, land and biodiversity.
Schneider issued an 18-page whitepaper on data center sustainability that describes 23 sustainability metrics over five categories: energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, waste generation and land and biodiversity impact. Among the 23 metrics, there are five under the energy heading labeled as total energy consumption; power usage effectiveness; total renewable energy consumption; renewable energy factor and energy reuse factor. Under waste, operators would report tons of total waste generated and the tons sent to landfills or diverted, and the ratio of the two.
For the land and biodiversity category, an emerging area of study, Schneider’s whitepaper relies on the CDC Biodiversite metric out of France, which is not yet a standard but calls for a creating a global biodiversity score.
Schneider's whitepaper also notes that there are already 17 relevant frameworks and standards for data centers to use in setting sustainability targets or reports or certifying results. They include the well-known LEED and Energy Star certifications.
"Almost easy stuff" toward sustainability
Rule said there is often a 5% to 20% improvement in energy efficiency that can be reached in an existing manufacturing operation, including its data centers. “Improvements can be made in a number of buckets with lower cost electricity and more efficient equipment,” he said.
Some of the improvements that can be achieved “are almost easy stuff,” he said. One example he gave is reducing the monthly testing of emergency generators used to restore power in operations during blackouts. If a generator has indeed been used to restore power in a blackout, then it doesn’t have to have a maintenance re-start for that month.
“You defer monthly maintenance. You count the emergency start as the monthly restart and reduce fuel consumption,” he said. “It’s a small thing but you have to look at what you are doing today and what’s sustainable. That’s the moral of the story. Maybe you won’t have to spend a 10% premium to be sustainable.”
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