WP#62 - Data Center Environmental Impacts

Overview

The Green Grid's white paper number 62 is dated 11 December 2014 and was written by Christophe Garnier, Billy McHallum, Jay Dietrich and Markus Stutz. Access requires signing in with a free account, and copyright rests with The Green Grid. The record rests on the abstract on the library's public landing page; the full text has not been read, so detailed content is not conveyed here.

The paper aims to identify the main environmental impact categories of a typical data center. Its starting point is that a full facility life cycle assessment (LCA) is hard: the variety of data centers, the number of suppliers, data gaps and complexity all cause the difficulty. For that reason, the paper proposes a manageable category structure in place of a complete LCA.

The impacts are organised into five main categories, with objectives, measurements and key performance indicators (KPIs) defined for some of them. The ranked levels follow the 0-to-5 progression of the Data Center Maturity Model (DCMM). The results are intended for a new Environmental and Life Cycle section of the DCMM. This positions the paper as a maturity-based roadmap tool.

The limit of the record is that the names of the five categories and the KPI definitions are not given on the landing page, so they are not invented here. The paper offers a conceptual framework for structuring environmental impact topics and grading them by maturity level. Quantitative calculations for carbon, water and materials need other sources, and the report itself must be consulted for the full list of categories and measures.

Key points

1. Dated 11 December 2014.
2. Data center LCAs are challenging because of variety, supplier count, data gaps and complexity.
3. Impacts are organised into five main categories.
4. Objectives, measurements and KPIs are defined for some categories.
5. Ranked levels follow the 0-to-5 Data Center Maturity Model progression.
6. Results are intended for a new Environmental/Life Cycle section in the DCMM.

Using it in design

• In a sustainability scorecard, group indicators into impact categories.
• Allow a 0-5 maturity rating per category.
• Verify category names and KPIs from the report text before using them.

Who should read it

Data center sustainability leads, designers and operators who do environmental reporting.

Publication details

Authors

Christophe Garnier; Billy McHallum; Jay Dietrich; Markus Stutz

Publisher

The Green Grid

Year

2014

Document number

WP 62

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