Data centers are under pressure to scale fast while minimizing their environmental footprint. But what does “sustainability” really mean in an industry that consumes vast amounts of power, land, and water?
In a recent webinar hosted by sustainable building certification firm BREEAM, data center sustainability experts discussed prevailing myths, mounting challenges, and emerging innovations across the sector.
Topics ranged from the complexities of site selection and power scarcity to breakthroughs in construction methods and on-site energy generation. The conversation began by tackling a fundamental question: Are data centers real estate, infrastructure, or both? And what does “sustainability” mean in this context?
While panelists agreed there’s no single definition, they were unanimous in their view that data centers – now essential to everything from remote work to education and healthcare – are undeniably critical infrastructure. Yet their physical presence demands access to land, power, and water – resources that are becoming increasingly constrained.
“[Data centers] are critical infrastructure,” said Miranda Gardiner, executive director of iMasons Climate Accord. “This is how you access medical records; this is how school is being taught; this is how we got through COVID working from home. It’s not a commodity that is just nice to have.”
“If data center providers and sustainability experts are not coming together to resolve things that help support efficiency, it’s a missed opportunity because data centers are not going away. The question should be: How can we become solution providers to support how growth is happening?”
Common Data Center Sustainability Myths
The perennial challenge of the data center industry has been keeping pace with soaring demand. This challenge is only complicated by the many misconceptions that surface in discussions of data center efficiency and sustainability.
One such misconception is the conflation of inefficiency and growing power usage. The constant stream of headlines about the exorbitant amounts of energy needed to power data centers has led to the belief that data centers aren’t doing enough to reduce their power consumption, which is simply untrue, argued Amanda Abell, senior director of sustainability at Stream Data Centers.
“Data centers use a lot of power, but it doesn’t mean they are inefficient. I think sometimes there’s a belief that we need to focus only on sustainability, but there are so many market drivers pushing energy efficiency in data centers outside of sustainability.”
She added: “We need to make sure we are being efficient, but the financial drivers are huge. If you have not designed your data center for maximum efficiency, you’re not going to be in business very long.”
The business of data centers is also a key part of the sustainability debate. During the BREEAM webinar, Chris Pennington, director of energy and sustainability at Iron Mountain Data Centers, noted that while sustainability has become synonymous with “environmentally friendly,” it also refers to a data center’s financial viability. This encompasses many factors, including efficiency, site location, construction, and supply chain, and requires innovation if the industry expects to meet the expectations of exponential demand and rapid growth.
“Data centers are sustainable, and there’s a really good business reason behind energy efficiency, water conservation, and biodiversity-focused efforts beyond saving the planet,” Pennington said. “The reality is that sustainability is not just doing green things, it is actually doing smart things for business in order to thrive going forward.”
Data centers are migrating beyond traditional internet hubs as the industry redefines sustainability to encompass power, water, and community impact. Image: Alamy.
Power Hungry, Resource Strapped
One thing is certain: the demand for data centers will continue to accelerate, which means more will be built, despite shortages of land, power, and water. Geographic location creates situationally specific demands, especially where resources are concerned.
While data centers were traditionally concentrated in major internet hubs, they are now migrating to areas where power grids and water sources can be accessed. These locations are becoming scarcer, spurring engineers and designers to consider new ways to shift the existing paradigm between utility companies and data centers through on-site power generation.
The hope is that soon, data centers will be able to utilize onsite power generation, not only for redundancy, but to lessen the burden on local power grids, creating a mutual transference of energy.
During the BREEAM webinar, Pennington discussed how Iron Mountain hopes to achieve this: “We’re working on adding energy storage to our data centers so that we can become a flexible grid resource rather than a burden on the grid.”
He added: “There are significant points in time where we can use on-site energy storage to lower our consumption on the grid, not reduce the output of the data center – serving customers and keeping critical systems operating but build in flexibility through really big onsite energy storage batteries at our sites.”
Tackling the Data Center Power Challenge
Reducing energy consumption is a top priority for data center operators, but it is by no means the only critical focus. Data centers can reduce their energy consumption significantly, achieving very low PUE, but it is a trade-off that requires large increases in water consumption, and finding ways to reduce water usage is just as urgent a priority for data centers.
“This is a challenge that we have been aware of,” Gardiner said. “Now we are coming closer and closer to that horizon of water shortages. How we use [water] for cooling has shifted a lot. How we’re using it again for potable and non-potable sources is different when we’re in water-stressed areas, which a number of data center growth markets are. We must evaluate that and become more strategic in how we use water.”
Careful consideration of trade-offs like this is the only way to measure true data center sustainability. Designing, constructing, and operating data centers in the most sustainable way requires a holistic, comprehensive approach before construction begins.
There are many different factors and stakeholders to consider, not only for a data center’s immediate sustainability but also for its future sustainability.
“It’s extremely important that the designers of data centers are considering these things because water and energy are going to be consumed over a 20 or 30-year period,” said Graham Langton, global head of sustainability at CTS Group. “You don’t want to be using a 30-year-old HVAC system that you’ve never upgraded.”
As data centers begin to populate residential and urban areas in larger numbers, community buy-in is often tenuous. Because many people are apprehensive about inviting data centers into their neighborhoods, transparency and collaboration with local community members and experts become a crucial component of building and operating sustainable data centers.
The challenges reach beyond so-called “NIMBYism” and resources, though, and concern quality of life and potential impact on biodiversity. While data centers don’t often receive public acknowledgement, many operators will decide to forego building in locations where facilities could significantly impact resources or harm wildlife.
Ultimately, true sustainability is far more complex than just achieving low energy usage. It requires deep collaboration between engineers, developers, environmental experts, utility companies, and end users. It’s not just about sustaining the systems we already have – it’s about imagining better ones and being willing to work together to build them.
