More commitment for less power consumption

Comments by Ralf Klotzbücher, VP Sales & Marketing Europe

We will only meet the challenge of decisive action against climate change if every industry plays its part. In particular those which consume a lot of energy must react quickly. Because data centre operators come into this category, they were already made aware of their responsibilities by the European Commission back in February 2020. The EU requires that data centre operators become carbon neutral by 2030. That is 20 years before the EU Member States aim to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

The significance of this requirement only becomes really clear when one considers the steady growth of energy consumption by data centres: In 2020 the demand from servers and data centres rose by seven percent in Germany alone. What is needed is a genuine commitment from each individual business to reduce power consumption sustainably.

One step in this direction is the Climate Neutral Data Centre Operator Pact, whereby in early 2021 the sector undertook to make every European data centre climate neutral by 2030. Among the measures needed to achieve this are better energy efficiency and cooling performance, a higher recycling rate during construction, waste heat recovery and the exclusive use of renewable energy sources.

Smart solutions curb energy consumption
At Datwyler IT Infra these measures count as standard. From a sense of responsibility towards our customers – and our planet – we are always seeking and finding new ways to save energy and act sustainably. One example of this is the concept of siting data centres underground, in unused galleries or tunnels. Here, due to the special climatic conditions, less energy is needed for cooling.

Datwyler takes its responsibilities seriously. By 2030 we are aiming at climate neutrality for our own activities on all our sites around the world. At the same time we want to reduce the use of resources such as heating energy, electricity and water per unit of turnover. The same applies to the amounts of waste produced in our factories. Sustainability has been a major strategic objective for Datwyler since back in 2008. This takes the practical form of product development through customer support, staff leadership and production to social commitment. For us sustainability is about balancing economic, strategic and ecological responsibility.This also includes developing our ecosystem jointly with specialist partners in order to support our customers in achieving their climate targets. One example of this is Envio Systems, with whom we can offer our customers smart building management.