Intelligent Data Centres Issue 42 | Page 46

FEATURE accordingly working to align their goals by incorporating sustainability approaches and strategies in design , building , supply chain , services and their processes .
Can you give any examples of data centres that are landmark projects in terms of sustainability ?
Green Mountain in Norway is one of the world ’ s greenest colocation operators , servicing customers in financial services , healthcare and government industries . The provider is big on sustainability and as part of its DC1 facility expansion project , it opted to choose new cooling technologies from Vertiv .
The solutions deployed helped Green Mountain solidify its commitment to sustainability and enable customers to optimise operations more efficiently .
According to Alexander de Flon Ronning , Design and Product Manager of Green Mountain : “ Sustainability affects everything we do and is critical whenever we build new colocation data centres . All our customers can see where we get our energy . It is a key differentiator for us . The technologies we deployed at Green Mountain are the most energy-efficient we have seen . Based on the power usage effectiveness ( PUE ), the equipment will improve overall efficiency rating , which was already at extremely high standards .”
Are there any certifications data centres need to achieve to prove their green credentials ?
There are a number of country-specific certifications on building ‘ green ’ or sustainable data centres . Some countries also incentivise ‘ green data centres ’ through tax breaks .
In Singapore , for example , the government ’ s Infocomm Media Development Authority developed a Singapore Standard for Green Data Centers . Modelled after the ISO 50001 standard on energy management , it defines a set of performance metrics for data centres to measure their energy efficiency .
In Malaysia , the Sustainable Energy Development Authority ( SEDA ) Malaysia aims to drive public and private collaborations to support carbon reduction targets of 40 % against the GDP annually in the ICT sector .
In the industry , PUE is a measure of energy efficiency of a data centre . It is derived by calculating the ratio of the energy used as a whole for the data centre as compared with the energy used by just the IT equipment alone . As an example , the PUE for the tobe-approved data centres in Singapore is reportedly required to be 1.3 or below .
How can data centres help organisations reduce their carbon footprint ?
Data centres and the entire ecosystem of companies associated with them can start by adopting a resolution to measure and reduce carbon in all their products , facilities and power .
The top cloud providers who are the major customers for hyperscale data centre buildups have already announced their goals to be carbon neutral or carbon negative over the next 5 – 10 years .
The data centre providers and their vendors / solution providers are
These measures can focus on , among others , conserving energy , water and other natural resources that in turn can aid in the reduction of greenhouse emissions . To illustrate , Vertiv provides highly efficient power and thermal solutions to data centre operators while it has also adopted certain energy efficiency initiatives in its own operations , such as LED lighting to equipment upgrades , and exploring the adoption of renewable energy .
What sort of services should a green data centre be offering to prove its green credentials ?
The green certifications of a data centre built and operated on sustainable principles offers immediate and significant differentiation to its clients as compared to more traditional data centres , especially the hyperscale cloud services companies and other enterprise-grade customers , by enabling them to progress towards their ESG goals .
These ‘ fit for future ’ data centres can offer digital solutions monitoring the energy consumption , water usage , temperature and humidity trends and peak demand cycles .
Along with access to clean power source and high efficiency standards on power usage , they can offer sustainable practices such as smart temperature and lighting controls , rainwater reclamation , waste heat recycling and advanced cooling technologies . They can make strides on leading recycling and circular economy programmes with local businesses .
The next step is for these data centres to adopt a standard mechanism for measuring and reporting carbon in power usage and embodied within the materials or products used in the data centres . This will allow them to collaborate easily within themselves as well as with the client companies who may have already embarked on an organisation-wide carbon management programme to measure and decarbonise their operations . �
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