Intelligent Data Centres Issue 09 | Page 21

INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE POWERED BY THE DCA The circle of life: DCA works to support greener data centres Several DCA Partners are now working within the concept of the ‘circular economy’, says Steve Hone, CEO, DCA. Here he tells us more about the principles of a circular economy, with insight from two DCA members about how they are championing these values. T he definition of the circular economy made me realise that it’s a very simple concept – a little bit like the ‘circle of life’ in the Lion king. Every manufactured product upon its demise returns to its creator to be re-purposed and so contributes to the next version of the product. A circular economy follows the principles of the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. • Resource use is minimised – Reduced • Reuse of products and parts is maximised – Reuse • Raw materials are reused – Recycled I’ll be sharing the opinions of two DCA Partners – Mat Jordan, Head of EMEA at Procurri and Astrid Wynne, Sustainability Manager, Techbuyer – who are not only championing these values themselves but also encouraging the supply chain they work with to do the same. The Data Centre Alliance is strongly in favour of supporting all initiatives that encourage and ensure a more sustainable future. Although data centres can never be truly considered as ‘green’ it remains the collective responsibility of all businesses and consumers to ensure that, as a sector, www.intelligentdatacentres.com our data centres deliver the greenest credentials possible. How to achieve a greener data centre: Data centre refurbishment, technology re-use and energy efficiency Mat Jordan, Head of EMEA at Procurri, points out that the industry will experience huge growth in the next decade and explains more about trade-back and buy-back programmes, comprehensive independent maintenance servicing and IT asset disposition. A mention of data centres tends not to invoke mental images of environmentally friendly technology and ‘green’ credentials; but often rather rows of grey equipment, dusty shelves and ‘always on’ computers. This need not be the case any longer – as with everything in IT, now is the time for businesses to look to new ways of doing things to improve their sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The options for achieving ‘greener’ data centres are numerous, and varied: but they’re still not the status quo, so not all IT companies will offer them up easily. There are many ways in which data centre owners can better utilise their existing equipment and optimise usage to enhance their sustainability credentials and the value Issue 09 21