WP#45 - Data Center Life Cycle Assessment Guidelines

Overview

This white paper from The Green Grid is dated 20 November 2012, and its editor is Christophe Garnier (Schneider Electric). It provides a framework for assessing a data centre's complete life cycle across the relevant environmental impacts. Its starting point is that existing life cycle assessment (LCA) tools each have limited and differing scopes and usually give gross estimates at best.

The framework's focus is on defining assessment boundaries and environmental concerns. The document is therefore less about supplying a calculation tool than about clarifying what an LCA study should include and exclude. This approach is necessary if the results of different studies are to be comparable.

The document also states what it leaves out: economic and social aspects, such as conflict materials, are outside the framework. Results should therefore be read as an environmental impact assessment only, not a full sustainability analysis. The record rests only on the abstract on the TGG library page and gives no detail of the document's internal structure.

EN 15978 and ISO 14040/14044 are named as related standards. Being from 2012, the databases and methods used in today's embodied-carbon calculations may be more detailed, yet the principle of defining boundaries remains valid.

Key points

1. Dated 20 November 2012; editor Christophe Garnier (Schneider Electric).
2. Existing LCA tools have differing scopes and usually give gross estimates at best.
3. Provides a framework for assessing a data centre's complete life cycle.
4. Focuses on assessment boundaries and environmental concerns.
5. Excludes economic and social aspects such as conflict materials.
6. Related standards: EN 15978 and ISO 14040/14044.

Using it in design

• In the embodied-carbon module, define explicit LCA boundaries (modules A-C per EN 15978) and life-cycle stages for the facility and IT.
• Display which stages are included.
• Label results as environmental impact only and state that economic and social aspects are excluded.

Who should read it

Sustainability engineers and consultants carrying out data centre carbon and life cycle assessments.

Related standards

• EN 15978
• ISO 14040/14044

Publication details

Authors

Christophe Garnier; Mark Aggar; Marc Banks; Jay Dietrich; Bob Shatten; Markus Stutz; Emmanuel Tong-Viet

Publisher

The Green Grid

Year

2012

Document number

WP 45

Document language

English

Source type

Industry body

Access

Citation only

Licence

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

Citation