The governing body of the iMasons Climate Accord, a program of infrastructure masons, is calling on all data center service providers to support greater transparency in Scope 3 emissions as part of broader efforts to reduce the industry's carbon footprint.
The governing body, consisting of AWS, Digital Realty, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Schneider Electric, published an open letter explaining the importance of widespread adoption of environmental product declarations, which are standardized, third-party verified documents that report greenhouse gas emissions. they do. A product's EPDs describe the greenhouse gas emissions of a product over its entire life cycle, from the raw materials in the product (for example, how they are extracted, transported, and processed), to the manufacture, transportation, use of the product, and Shows the end of product life. (eg, landfill, recycling, conversion, etc.).
While EPDs are common in some business sectors, widespread adoption of EPDs in the data center industry is lacking. This open letter reflects a significant push from the largest scale-up and digital infrastructure companies to drive meaningful change across the industry, working with their trusted suppliers.
It is essential to continue to ensure that the digital infrastructure industry decarbonises as it grows. Signatories to the iMasons Governing Body Open Letter all have net zero carbon emissions commitments to address their responsibility to reduce data center carbon emissions (with deadlines between 2025 and 2040, which is at least 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement). And this letter marks another milestone in the decarbonization of operations.
Hyperscalers have implemented strategies to reduce and/or reduce range 1 and 2 emissions. As they look to achieve net carbon emissions in the coming years, solving the next piece of the sustainability puzzle is reducing Scope 3 emissions, which can represent between 38 and 69 percent of a data center's total carbon footprint. Range 3 publications are not produced by the company itself. Rather, they involve indirect diffusion throughout the value chain.
Access to critical information in EPDs enables data center owners, operators and end users to effectively calculate their environmental impact and design products (servers, cooling systems, uninterruptible power supplies and services) based on the lowest range 3 emissions, the best Choose alignment with sustainability goals.
EPDs are critical in making the future of digital infrastructure more resilient and climate positive. Adoption of EPDs in the global supply chain fosters sustainable and responsive outcomes. Because standardized, verified data provides a layer of transparency, this initiative is a collective approach, said Miranda Gardiner, executive director of the iMasons Climate Accord, a coalition of 250 members representing $8 trillion. It supports reducing carbon emissions and our environmental footprint. Combined market value
“At AWS, we are committed to achieving net carbon emissions across our operations by 2040 by investing in zero-carbon energy, scaling solutions and working with partners to expand our impact,” said Eric Wilcox, vice president of data center engineering. » At AWS we support iMasons' call for suppliers to use environmental product declarations. Doing so will provide greater transparency on Scope 3 emissions from equipment and help accelerate the industry's overall efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
“As a leading data center company, we understand the need to address Scope 3 emissions associated with new data center construction,” said Lex Coors, chief data center technology officer and engineering officer for the Digital Real Estate division and a member of the Infrastructure Masons governing body. “By advocating for the adoption of EPDs, we are not just committed to transparency. We are taking a decisive step towards empowering the entire industry to make informed and responsible choices that align with our collective sustainability ambitions. This initiative is very important as we strive to meet the growing needs of our digital world in a sustainable manner.”
“In line with our commitment to open standards and our company-wide goal of achieving net zero emissions across our operations and value chain, we support industry-wide adoption of environmental product declarations as an important lever in low-carbon digital purchasing. “As a board member of the iMasons Climate Accord, Google is eager to help accelerate progress toward a more transparent and sustainable data center industry,” said Joe Cava, Vice President, Global Data Center, Google.
“Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is META's top priority to achieve net zero emissions in our value chain by 2030. We are joining our peers to drive greater transparency in the data center supply chain to better understand the embodied carbon of the infrastructure that underpins operations. It is our request. These statements will play an important role in accelerating the decarbonization efforts for future data centers.
Microsoft has committed to become carbon negative by 2030 and to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions produced since our founding by 2050. said Shirin O'Connor, CVP, data center engineering, procurement and construction, Microsoft.
“For the digital infrastructure industry to align with net-zero emissions targets, carbon emissions must be a fundamental consideration in procurement decisions,” said iMasons board member Anna Thimm, who is also head of sustainability for secure power plants and data centers. Schneider Electric. “Promoting industry-wide adoption of EPDs is an important step in enabling carbon-based decision-making. Schneider Electric has been dedicated to publishing EPDs since 2008, and we recognize the significant impact that industry adoption will have as we collectively move toward net zero.” We were excited.
This open letter is the second issued by the ICA calling for supplier action to accelerate decarbonisation efforts. In April 2023, the ICA governing body called on data center industry suppliers to use low-carbon concrete in data center infrastructure.
