Data center sustainability must evolve beyond a focus on power usage effectiveness (PUE) alone to include metrics like Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE), Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE), and data center greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This means selecting low-carbon materials, designing for disassembly and reuse, driving renewable energy adoption, and implementing efficient technologies like direct liquid cooling.
At Stream Data Centers, this holistic approach is integral to our mission as we work to minimize our environmental footprint and support our customers’ sustainability goals. Ultimately, a data center’s true performance encompasses not just the workloads it supports, but its role in a sustainable future. Data center sustainability now encompasses energy efficiency, water efficiency, direct and indirect GHG emissions, waste, and impact on the local ecosystem.
Paul Lin and Robert Bunger at Schneider Electric developed a framework that includes five categories with 28 metrics “for data center operators in various stages of their sustainability journeys to take control of sustainability goals”:
Energy
- Total energy consumption
- Power usage effectiveness (PUE)
- Total renewable energy consumption
- Renewable energy factor (REF)
- Energy reuse factor (ERF)
- Server utilization (ITEUsv)
GHG emissions
- Scope 1 GHG emissions
- Scope 2 location-based GHG emissions
- Scope 2 market-based GHG emissions
- Scope 3 GHG emissions
- Carbon usage effectiveness (CUE)
- Total carbon offsets
- Hourly renewable supply and consumption matching
Water
- Total site water usage
- Total source energy water usage
- Water usage effectiveness (WUE)
- Water replenishment
- Total water use in supply chain
Waste
- Total waste generated
- E-waste generated
- Battery waste generated
- Total waste diverted
- E-waste diverted
- Battery waste diverted
Local ecosystem
- Total land use
- Land use intensity
- Outdoor noise
- Mean species abundance (MSA)
Explore more in the article What We (Don’t) Know About Data Center Sustainability.
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