Data centres account for approximately 0.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions, fuelled (excuse the pun) by increasing demand for increased Internet services. In 2010 we partnered with Trees for Life, a Scottish charity dedicated to restoring the Caledonian Forest since 1989. The Forest once covered vast areas of Scotland but today only 1% of the original area survives. It is the site of several species found nowhere else in the British Isles.
For each non-low power dedicated server rented from us, we donate to Trees for Life who then plant a new tree in our grove in the Caledonian Forest. Our goal is to help regenerate the Forest whilst also recognising that trees absorb environmental CO2.
How Much Do Data Centres Contribute to CO2 Emissions?
Data centres provide not only power for servers, but also must power the ancillary equipment including air conditioning, lighting, building management and security systems. There are also inherent losses in UPS units and AC/DC converters.
A typical small server, operating at 0.6A say, uses approximately 0.25kW of power after all overheads are taken into account. In one month, this equates to approximately 180kWh of metered power. Each kWh is estimated on average to add 475g of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Therefore we arrive at this surprising result:
A typical server powered conventionally contributes 1 tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.
This is the same amount of CO2 absorbed by a single tree over its 40 year lifetime.
How We Minimise Our Carbon Footprint
Planting trees for the future is clearly beneficial, but it doesn't solve the immediate problem at hand. Therefore, to minimise our impact on the environment now, we operate:
- Completely paperless systems: we send all invoices to our clients as PDFs, all communications as e-mails and provide electronic access to all records at all times. We opt not to receive paper copies of invoices from all our suppliers where possible. We also haven't accepted a cheque payment since 2008 (they're very slow besides!)
- Low-power equipment: the most direct way to protect against environmental damage is to use less energy in the first place! We're constantly investigating the feasibility of low power hardware, and are pleased to offer a range of low power servers ideal for smaller tasks and as backup devices.
- Virtualisation solutions: we run many of our core services on virtualisation platforms, reducing our overall footprint by consolidating our systems on to fewer hardware units.
- Efficient data centres: various techniques are employed at our data centres to minimise their power consumption and maximise efficiency. For example, cold-aisle containment increases HVAC efficiency by up to 30%, and presence-sensing lighting ensures each room's lights are only kept on when the room is occupied.