SUSTAINABILITY
THE GREEN GRID came into being 11 years ago with a shared goal for the data centre industry : to build a lasting industry alliance of companies donating time to attack the problems around enhancing the energy efficiency of data centre ( DC ) infrastructure , while combating waste and inefficiency in the non-IT focused areas of the business .
“ Our stated mission is to drive effective and accountable resource efficiency across the entire information and communications technology ecosystem ,” says Roger Tipley , Green Grid President and VP of Industry & Government Alliances at Schneider Electric . “ We ’ re here to enable sustainable IT solutions with help from our volunteer army . We have work groups in the US , Europe , Japan and China . We ’ re not a lobbying organisation trying to tell governments what to do ; we try to advise based on the different global issues and political climates our members hail from . We want to be stakeholders in the process and be the experts called in to look at outcomes for both industry and end users when new regulations and standards are mooted .”
Part of the Green Grid ’ s mission is to address ways the construction industry can incorporate principles from the ‘ circular economy ’ to reduce the environmental impact of DCs . It boasts over 200 members including giants like Intel , Cisco , Google and IBM alongside industry innovators such as Future Facilities which pioneers engineering simulation tools to contribute to the design of sustainable DCs . “ We ’ ve had a long-term interest in thinking about the end of life point of view ,” says Tipley . “ The old term for the circular economy would have been the cradle to grave principle . You ’ re trying to create DCs with larger ecosystems around them so you use clean materials that are easily recyclable and upgradeable . Currently , the European Commission are working on defining what the circular economy is and how you measure that . They are asking what it means to be durable , upgradeable , recyclable or repairable .” Following the definitional phase , Tipley expects to see regulations which have an impact on people ’ s products . “ We would like to be an industry voice to help make these goals pragmatic and realistic , while still trying to meet the overall sustainability requirements . The whole concept of sustainability is a three-legged stool : social responsibility , environmental
44 March 2018