A year after the adoption of the European Green Deal, cloud infrastructure providers and data centre operators have created the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact. Twenty-five companies and 17 associations have agreed to a Self Regulatory Initiative to make data centres in Europe climate neutral by 2030. Companies joining the Pact represent the most significant industry players in cloud infrastructure and data centres in Europe. This is an historic and unprecedented commitment by an industry to proactively lead the transition to a climate neutral economy, it says.
Alban Schmutz, Chairman of CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe): “With cloud infrastructure the backbone of the European Union’s digital economy, our industry is committed to the idea that we must all play a central role in addressing climate change. This commitment underpins a roadmap for Europe’s cloud infrastructure industry to offer climate neutral services to customers by 2030.”
Apostolos Kakkos, Chairman of EUDCA (European Data Centre Association): “Data centres are the supporting pillars of the fourth industrial revolution and, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, are essential infrastructure of not only the digital economy but of the entire global economy. It is our duty to commit to a self-regulatory initiative that will help to ensure the operational availability, sustainability and the future of our industry.”
The Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact establishes a Self Regulatory Initiative which has been developed in co-operation with the European Commission. It supports both the European Green Deal, which aims to make Europe the world’s first climate neutral continent by 2050, and the European Data Strategy by making EU data centres climate neutral by 2030. The Self Regulatory Initiative sets ambitious goals that will facilitate Europe’s essential transition to a greener economy. It commits signatories to ensuring their data centres are climate neutral by setting ambitious measurable targets for 2025 and 2030 in the following areas:
- · Prove energy efficiency with measurable targets
- · Purchase 100% carbon-free energy
- · Prioritise water conservation
- · Reuse and repair servers
- · Look for ways to recycle heat
Progress towards achieving climate neutral data centres will be monitored by the European Commission twice a year.
Signatories: Cloud providers and operators of data centres
3DS Outscale (Dassault Systèmes)
Altuhost
Aruba
Atos
AWS (Amazon Web Services)
CyrusOne
Data4
DigiPlex
Digital Realty/Interxion
Equinix
FlameNetworks
Gigas
Google
Ikoula
Ilger
Infloclip
Irideos
ITnet
LCL
Leaseweb
NTT
OVHcloud
Register
Scaleway
Seeweb
Trade associations
CISPE, the association of Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers Europe
EUDCA, the European Data Centre Association
Cloud28+
Cloud Community Poland
Danish Cloud Community
Datacenter Industrien
Data Centre Alliance
Dutch Data Center Association
Dutch Hosting Providers Association
Eco – Alliance for strengthening digital infrastructures in Germany
EuroCloud Croatia
EuroCloud France
France Datacenter
Host in Scotland
IKT-Norge
ISPConnect
TechUK
