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Environmental product declarations are the latest big tech obsession in the fight to improve data center sustainability

The biggest names in tech have backed an open letter supporting the adoption of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in a bid to lessen data center emissions. AWS, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Schneider Electric, and Digital Reality have all signed the letter, marking their support of EPDs and their confidence in how this approach could help drive sustainability.

Put simply, an EPD is a document that captures the footprint of a product or material, acting as the nutrition label for the data center operator when purchasing new systems or equipment. They are calculated through a sustainability assessment of a product from the extraction process of original raw materials to the transportation of the finished product and the product’s end-of-life (EOL).

EPDs are then used to estimate the embodied carbon footprint of a project, in this case, a data center, based on the actual volume of material or counts of products purchased, the letter explained. An EPD reports on the potential impact of data center hardware and materials rather than the operational emissions. This refers to the emissions created by a data center’s broader operations, such as manufacturing, transportation, or the use of construction materials.

While a data center operator may have oversight of their operational emissions, such as the power their data center is directly responsible for consuming, they don’t currently have as effective oversight over their embodied emissions. The open letter is seen as a collective call to action for the industry and not a directive with a deadline for suppliers, said Anna Timme, Head of Sustainability for Secure Power and Data Centers at Schneider Electric.

The biggest argument from big tech is that there are not enough vendors producing EPDs for their materials, restricting sustainability efforts in data center projects and hampering the ability to procure lower-carbon materials and equipment. The industry’s lack of EPDs also fails to reflect vendor emissions reductions when reporting to stakeholders, such as regulators.

According to Gartner analyst Autumn Stanish, EPDs are not always considered trustworthy but the letter could help alter the conversation. The open letter’s signatories see EPDs as a critical tool in measuring the carbon footprint of data centers and, as such, are pushing vendors to publish more EPDs for materials and equipment.

They are calling on vendors to create Type III ISO or EN verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) while ensuring that these EPDs adhere to common rules and are readily available. Vendors are asked to distribute these EPDs in common databases such as the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) and OpenLCA and to align data exchanges with existing standards.

Embodied emissions aren’t the only problem. While EPDs aim to solve an important sustainability need, they do not address the complete issue. Operational emissions, which constitute the actual power used by a data center, are just as challenging to manage.

A JLL report earlier this year found that data centers are having to meet huge power requirements, largely owing to an uptick in generative AI development. Irish electricity company EirGrid predicted that data centers could more than double to 30% of all electricity consumption by 2028.

Microsoft recorded a 29% surge in emissions last year, according to an internal sustainability report, threatening its carbon-neutral plans by the end of the decade. Google’s latest environmental report highlighted a 48% increase in data center-related carbon emissions over the last five years, largely due to increased power demands from generative AI.

Source: Environmental product declarations are the latest big tech obsession in the fight to improve data center sustainability.