Environmental product declarations are the latest big tech obsession in the fight to improve data center sustainability

The biggest names in tech have backed an open letter supporting the adoption of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in a bid to lessen data center emissions.

AWS, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Schneider Electric, and Digital Reality have all signed the letter, marking their support of EPDs and their confidence in how this approach could help drive sustainability.

Put simply, an EPD is a document that captures the “footprint of a product or material,” acting as the “nutrition label” for the data center operator when purchasing new systems or equipment.

They are calculated through a sustainability assessment of a product, from the extraction process of original raw materials to the transportation of the finished product and the product’s end-of-life (EOL).

“EPDs are then used to estimate the embodied carbon footprint of a project, in this case a data center, based on the actual volume of material or counts of products purchased,” the letter explained.

An EPD reports on the potential impact of data center hardware and materials rather than the operational emissions. This refers to the emissions created by a data center’s broader operations, such as manufacturing, transportation, or the use of construction materials.

While a data center operator may have oversight of their operational emissions – the power their data center is directly responsible for consuming – they don’t currently have as effective oversight over their embodied emissions.

“The open letter should be seen as a collective call to action for our industry and not a directive with a deadline for suppliers,” Anna Timme, Head of Sustainability for Secure Power and Data Centers at Schneider Electric, told ITPro.

“Our hope is that the letter will help all of us – hyperscalers, data center operators, and suppliers – come together to recognize the significance of EPDs for assessing the entire GHG footprint of data center facilities and find ways to make EPDs more publicly available in the near future,” she added.

EPD adoption in the data center industry is minimal

Key to big tech’s argument is that there are “simply not enough” vendors producing EPDs for their materials, restricting sustainability efforts in data center projects and hampering the ability to “procure lower-carbon materials and equipment.”

The industry’s lack of EPDs also fails to reflect vendor emissions reductions when reporting to stakeholders such as regulators, potentially frustrating contracts with certain customer groups.

According to Gartner analyst Autumn Stanish, EPDs are not always considered “trustworthy”, but this letter could help alter the conversation.

“If they can generate more enthusiasm and questions about these EPDs, the few major vendors and the many niche hardware OEMs that still do not offer them will have to change their course and get on board quickly if they want to remain competitive,” Stanish told ITPro.

The open letter’s signatories therefore see EPDs as a “critical tool” in measuring the carbon footprint of data centers and as such are pushing vendors to publish “more EPDs for materials and equipment.”

More specifically, they are calling on vendors to create “Type III, ISO- or EN- verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)” whilst also ensuring that these EPDs adhere to common rules and are readily available.

They ask that vendors distribute these EPDs in common databases such as the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) and OpenLCA, as well as aligning data exchanges with existing standards.

These three points constitute the most significant aspect of the letter, Stanish said, as they look to ensure standardization for vendors.

“To the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), this says ‘this is what we expect from you,’ to buyers, this says ‘this is what you need to be asking for,’” she said.

“The letter’s intent doesn’t seem to be placing pressure or suggesting malintent from the OEMs. Rather, as a coalition, they’re coming together to suggest guidelines and parameters around what they (HW manufacturers) should be working towards to better enable their customers’ sustainability,” she added.

Embodied emissions aren’t the only problem

While EPDs seek to solve an important sustainability need, they are far from addressing the complete problem. Operational emissions, which constitute the actual power used by a data center, are just as difficult to keep on top of.

A JLL report earlier this year found that data centers are having to meet huge power requirements, largely owing to an uptick in generative AI development. Irish electricity company EirGrid predicted that data centers could more than double to 30% of all electricity consumption by 2028.

This is forcing power consumption and operational emissions up for organizations that increasingly need to find more efficient ways of directly powering their data centers.

Microsoft, for example, recorded a 29% surge in emissions last year according to an internal sustainability report, threatening its plans to be carbon neutral by the end of the decade.

Google’s latest environmental report also highlighted a 48% increase in data center-related carbon emissions over the last five years. Again, this was largely attributed to a huge increase in power demands brought about by the emergence of generative AI.

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Environmental product declarations are the latest big tech obsession in the fight to improve data center sustainability

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Environmental product declarations are the latest big tech obsession in the fight to improve data center sustainability

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