Climate Accord Maturity Model: A Guide to Emissions Reduction in Digital Infrastructure, Version 1.1

Overview

Version 1.1 (February 2025) of the iMasons Climate Accord model offers a voluntary maturity framework for decarbonizing data center portfolios. It covers three areas: carbon intensity of power, embodied carbon of materials, and embodied carbon of MEP and IT equipment. The introduction notes that data centers used about 460 TWh in 2022, nearly 2% of global electricity.

For power, levels 1-4 are 40-59%, 60-79%, 80-99% and 100% annual renewable supply, with hourly match of 20-39%, 40-59%, 60-79% and 80% or more. Carbon-free power locality steps through same region, same interconnected grid, within 100 miles and collocated. Grid benefit (export, reused waste heat or demand-response curtailment as a share of energy) is 1-2%, 3-5%, 6-9% and 10% or more.

For embodied carbon, measurement levels start with spend-based and then move to 20%, 80% and 100% of the portfolio measured by activity-based methods. Reduction targets against baseline are 1-15%, 16-30%, 30-45% and 45% or more for materials, and 1-10%, 11-20%, 21-30% and 30% or more for MEP and IT equipment. Data quality is tiered by the share of total GWP from supplier-specific LCA/EPD data: high quality means 50-100%, and CIBSE TM65 bill-of-materials proxies are allowed for MEP/IT only at low data quality. The document is a voluntary framework, not a legal requirement or standard. Related documents are CLC/TS 50600-5-1, ISO/IEC 30134-7, ISO/IEC 21836, CIBSE TM65 and ISO 14025.

Key points

1. Power levels 1-4: 40-59%, 60-79%, 80-99%, 100% annual renewable supply; hourly match 20-39%, 40-59%, 60-79%, 80% or more.
2. Carbon-free power locality levels: same region, same interconnected grid, within 100 miles, collocated.
3. Grid benefit (export, reused waste heat or demand-response curtailment as a share of energy): 1-2%, 3-5%, 6-9%, 10% or more.
4. Embodied carbon measurement levels: spend-based, then 20%, 80%, 100% of portfolio measured by activity-based methods.
5. Reduction targets: materials 1-15%, 16-30%, 30-45%, 45% or more; MEP and IT equipment 1-10%, 11-20%, 21-30%, 30% or more.
6. High data quality is 50-100% of total GWP from supplier-specific LCAs/EPDs; CIBSE TM65 BOM proxies are allowed for MEP/IT only at low data quality.
7. Data centers used about 460 TWh in 2022, nearly 2% of global electricity.

Using it in design

• Add embodied-carbon fields (kgCO2e; data source: EPD / TM65 / spend-based) to catalogue items and roll them up per design, reporting the share from supplier-specific EPDs.
• In a sustainability panel, score designs against the iCA power and materials levels (for example hourly CFE match, percentage of embodied carbon measured).
• State the data-quality tier (share of supplier-specific LCA/EPD data) explicitly in every report.

Who should read it

Sustainability managers and design teams preparing a carbon reduction roadmap for a data center portfolio.

Related standards

• CLC/TS 50600-5-1
• ISO/IEC 30134-7
• ISO/IEC 21836
• CIBSE TM65
• ISO 14025

Publication details

Authors

iMasons Climate Accord

Publisher

iMasons Climate Accord (Infrastructure Masons)

Year

2025

Document number

v1.1 (February 2025)

Document language

English

Source type

Industry body

Access

Free to read

Licence

Copyright retained; citation only — the publisher’s terms apply to the original document

Citation