Top 10: Sustainable Data Centres

As the world comes to rely on data centres even more, surging AI and connectivity demands are putting pressures on operators to keep emissions from rising.

From supply chains, to building materials, to cooling systems, integrating sustainability into a data centre is no small task. However, new ways to support environmental responsibility are emerging, as data centres seek to balance innovation with sustainability. 

Data Centre Magazine spotlights some of the world’s most environmentally-conscious data centre companies and how they are committed to powering a green future.

10. EdgeConneX

EdgeConneX is committed to undergoing a sustainable transformation by 2030. A critical part of this strategy is to become a carbon neutral data centre platform by 2030, as the company seeks to make its facilities more future-proof to meet rising energy demands.

In particular, EdgeConneX’s Amsterdam (AMS05) facility achieved the highest level of ‘Zero Waste to Landfill’ certification (Platinum) under the UL 2799 standard. Such a feat highlights the company’s commitment to sustainable operations and waste reduction

9. Ark Data Centres

Ark Data Centres has been integrating renewable energy sources into its operations from the very beginning and continues to look for new ways to reduce its environmental impact. 

The company’s Head of Sustainability Pip Squire told Data Centre Magazine: “Solar panels have been part of our business since the very beginning. The first data centre has them on the roof. We’ve been deploying them wherever we can on the roofs of our buildings.

“We've moved from diesel to HVO, which reduces our carbon footprint on the fuel that we use on site by 95%. And in the process also reduces Particulates and NOx, which is good for the planet.”

Ark's Spring Park locationis an ultra-secure data centre campus with five self-contained data centre buildings designed to offer 46MW of IT load over nearly 200,000 sq ft of IT space. 

8. EcoDataCenter

EcoDataCenter provides data centre solutions focused on efficiency, scalable growth, world-class service and sustainability.

EcoDataCenter 1 is a large-scale data center site for high-speed computing (HPC), colocation and wholesale in Falun, Sweden. As one of Sweden’s safest HPC plants, the facility is optimised for high-density applications and trusted by top companies to protect their essential data.

The site has access to nearby wind farms and hydropower plants, with all electricity consumed on-site being 100% renewable. 75% comes from hydropower and 25% from wind power from nearby hydropower plants and wind farms.

7. atNorth

atNorth is a leading Nordic data centre services company that offers environmentally responsible, power-efficient, cost-optimised data centre hosting.

Its proposed DEN02 data centre was first announced in September 2024 and is set to open in 2025. It is being built to support colocation and build-to-suit projects for hyperscalers and businesses that run AI and HPC workloads and is the company’s second data centre in Denmark.

In order to make this facility sustainability-led, atNorth signed a collaborative agreement with Wa3rm, a leader in the development of circular and bio-based operations for waste streams.

This partnership is designed to enable the recycling of excess heat from the new campus for use in large scale greenhouses. 

The site will also provide heating and hot water for local communities via the district heating supplier.

6. Iron Mountain

Powered by 100% renewable energy, Iron Mountain operates a global colocation platform that enables customers to build tailored, sustainable, carrier and cloud-neutral data solutions.

Iron Mountain's AZP-1 and AZP-2 data centres  offer an unbeatable range of power and interconnection opportunities tailored for enterprises, service providers and hyperscale clouds. AZP-2 in particular is a highlight for Iron Mountain’s sustainable progress, as it became the first BREEAM certified data centre in North America.

Powered by 100% renewable energy, Iron Mountain data centres operate a global colocation platform that enables customers to build tailored sustainable carrier and cloud-neutral data solutions. 

The company has also committed to achieving a 25% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from Scope 1 & 2 energy sources from its 2019 baseline by 2025.

5. Google

Google first set a goal in 2020 to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE) on every grid it operates on by 2030. Part of these plans involve the tech giant’s Rødby Fjord solar project that adds carbon-free energy to the grid that powers its data centre in Fredericia, Denmark.

The company leverages machine learning to optimise data centre cooling, using predictive analytics to fine-tune temperatures and airflow for maximum efficiency. 

It also focuses on circular economy principles and works to design data centres for disassembly and re-use of components.

However, the company experienced a wobble in 2024 when it discovered its emissions had increased by 13% on account of its AI developments. 

4. Equinix

As a world-leading data centre company, Equinix has set a goal to be climate neutral by 2030, which is backed by science-based targets, across its global portfolio and data centre platform. 

Equinix’s TR1 colocation and Internet Exchange service is situated in a telecommunications carrier hotel in Canada for partner interconnection across its digital supply chain. It is home to the largest financial ecosystem in Canada and features a pioneering deep lake water cooling system.

In this data centre, Equinix takes advantage of Toronto’s DLWC system by using water drawn from Lake Ontario to cool buildings in downtown Toronto. As a result, the company is able to reduce the total energy needs of the data centre by 50% or more.

3. Digital Realty

With sustainability a core component of its strategy, Digital Realty sustainability efforts consist of investing in onsite renewable energy generation, implementing advanced cooling and efficiency technologies and designing data centres for material reuse and recycling.

The company became the first global data centre organisation to join the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2020, and aims to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 68% and Scope 3 emissions by 24% by 2030 as it balances innovation with sustainability.

Its Cloud House data centre site in London in particular uses a pioneering river dock cooling system to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of its customers.

2. Microsoft

Microsoft has made significant strides in developing more sustainable data centres. As the world's second largest cloud computing platform, the tech giant is eager to recognise the importance of minimising the environmental impact of its Azure global infrastructure.

Azure’s sustainability strategy involves using 100% renewable energy to power its data centres by 2025. This involves expanding investments in wind, solar and hydroelectric power projects to meet the growing demand for cloud services. 

It has also implemented innovative cooling technologies, such as using outside air for cooling and capturing waste heat to warm local buildings.

Likewise, cross-laminated timber is being used in two new Microsoft data centres under construction in northern Virginia to enable the company to reduce the use of steel and concrete, two big contributors to carbon emissions.

1. AWS

With the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, AWS’ scale allows it to achieve higher resource utilisation and energy efficiency than the typical on-premises data centre. 

Multiple studies conducted have found that moving on-premises workloads to AWS can lower customers’ workload carbon footprints by nearly 80% and up to 96% once AWS is powered with 100% renewable energy. 

Likewise, AWS infrastructure is 3.6 times more energy efficient than the median of surveyed US enterprise data centres and up to five times more energy efficient than the average European enterprise data centre. 

AWS focuses on efficiency across all aspects of its infrastructure, from the design of its data centres and hardware to modelling the performance of its operations for continuous enhanced efficiency. 

In its new data centre developments, facilities will feature a cutting-edge hybrid cooling system to improve energy efficiency for emerging workloads. 

Traditional air cooling will be combined with direct-to-chip liquid cooling to cater to both liquid-cooled AI processors and air-cooled components like network and storage infrastructure, maintaining AWS's extensive range of over 750 Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute instances.

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