Improving Data Center Sustainability Starts With Its Design

In 2021, President Joe Biden set a goal for the U.S. to be free of carbon emissions by 2050. While 27 years may seem like plenty of time for the nation to get its act together, in reality, reaching this goal means that many industries need to assess their greenhouse gas emissions and make substantial changes.

One industry in particular that needs to make some major changes is the data center sector. The International Energy Agency reported that data centers account for approximately 1% of greenhouse gas energy usage. This may come from sources such as building and operating servers and utilizing cooling systems to control the temperature of equipment and systems.

Stream Data Centers has stepped in to develop data centers that put sustainability at the forefront through its partnerships with vendors in the supply chain, including energy management company Schneider Electric. For more than 10 years, Schneider has been working with Stream to provide energy-efficient products as well as guidance on how to make more informed decisions about what equipment is used from the get-go.

Stuart Lawrence, Stream’s vice president of product innovation and sustainability, and Mark Hurley, Schneider’s solutions architect of data centers, emphasized the importance of making sustainable choices during the design stage.

“While we know emissions generated during the operational life of the site are going to encompass the lion’s share of overall emissions, we also need to account for the embodied carbon in the building materials and the equipment that operators choose,” Lawrence said. “In addition, we need to think about the impact on biodiversity, water consumption and the amount of waste that will be produced. Many of the decisions we make during design will affect the outcome of all the other emissions factors.”

Lawrence added that data centers should opt for equipment that can maintain energy-efficiency even when they aren't operating at full capacity. He said that data centers are often designed around a full-load-running condition, but in reality, the IT utilization will fluctuate wildly, so it is important that data center companies select equipment and systems that operate at high levels of efficiency, even when utilization is lower. 

Some data centers may be hesitant to incorporate energy-efficient solutions because of the high upfront cost of products and implementation. However, Hurley said that even though operators may spend less at the beginning by avoiding energy-efficient tools, they may end up choosing products that use more energy and cost them more in the long run. 

Hurley added that data centers should also be thinking ahead beyond the life span of their products to ensure that they can be recycled or repurposed or put into the circular economy as opposed to being disposed of in landfills.

He stressed the importance of ensuring that each department involved in the design and operation of the data center is on the same page about prioritizing energy savings.

“When designing and building data centers with sustainability in mind, those goals should be spread throughout the organization, and all departments need to be in sync,” Hurley said. “If someone is being driven by lowest-cost solutions, they may not be thinking about the long-term implications on operating efficiency as well as energy consumption at all times.” 

Lawrence said Stream is taking Scope 3 emissions into account when designing data centers. 

“Scope 3 plays a significant role in the conversation, and as with many industries, a life cycle analysis approach is becoming mainstream with regard to equipment,” Lawrence said. “Whereas before, energy-efficiency was the main focus as it relates to environmental impact, now, designers, manufacturers, developers and end users are all sitting down at the beginning of a project to identify the scale of the embedded carbon in a data center project, before it even gets built.”

For Stream, the design stage is the perfect time for Schneider to step in and help the company with its approach to energy savings. Lawrence said Schneider provides equipment for Stream that can bring forth both exceptional service to tenants and a true understanding of the embedded carbon in its systems.

Schneider provides Stream with several solutions, which include Product Environmental Profiles, often referred to as Environmental Product Declarations, or documents that provide straightforward information about the emissions impact a product has on the environment, as well as white papers that contain information about incorporating sustainability in its data centers. 

Hurley said the company also created a sustainability group that provides advice on how tenants can take attainable steps and track their progress to meet the goals they have created.

Lawrence said that through Stream’s partnerships, including the one with Schneider, the company can make conscious choices about solutions that will reduce embedded carbon emissions, maintain high levels of reliability and be beneficial from an efficiency standpoint.

“We need to be able to rely on our vendors to come up with technology, equipment and other solutions that solve these emissions problems and help us build on our own goals,” Lawrence said. 

This article was produced in collaboration between Stream Data Centers, Schneider Electric and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.