Balancing the books on circular economy and energy efficiency

In the battle of digital handprint vs. digital footprint, how can we ensure the benefits of digitalisation are not outweighed by the energy and materials the sector consumes? Head of Sustainability at Interact, Astrid Wynne, takes a closer look.

Digital handprint vs digital footprint: how can we ensure the benefits of digitalisation are not outweighed by the energy and materials the sector consumes? With so many of our systems going paperless and online meetings saving on travel miles, the digital sector is seen as pathway towards lower carbon and environmental impact worldwide. However, programmes like Panorama are highlighting the huge energy cost of cloud. Society is waking up to the fact that all our free data has a real environmental cost. How do we deliver a net positive by being as resource efficient as we can?

Waste not, want not

Sustainability is not a new term in the data centre but it is a term whose definition is evolving. Five years ago, sustainability meant relying on Moore’s Law for increased efficiency gains. When you asked experts about the benefits of extending product life, they responded: “The latest generation is always twice more efficient than the last. You can reuse equipment, but it’s a false economy given how much you lose on the energy and carbon bill.”

This was depressing news given how many precious earths and rare metals went into the production of servers (12 of the 30 identified by the EU as Critical Raw Materials). Then there were the carbon emissions associated with mining those materials, making components and shipping to first use (932kg of emissions according to the Joint Research Council), and how much waste the electronics sector generates. E-waste was over 50m tonnes per annum globally at the time. The latest prediction from the United Nations Global Transboundary E-waste Flows Monitor is 74m tonnes by 2030.  

However, the figures on energy use in the digital sector are equally staggering. Data centres and networks are directly responsible for 2% of the world’s energy-related GHG emissions according to the latest IEA data. Avoiding wasted energy is key if we want to reap the full rewards that technology brings. We need to input data on energy efficiency, materials usage and waste and do the best we can on all three fronts.  

Finding equilibrium

Figuring out the finer details on this – the tipping point between throwing things away after too short a lifespan and sweating assets so long they become a drain – was the impetus behind creating Interact. Thousands of hours of benchmark testing involved multiple makes, models, generations and configurations of server were designed to understand:

  • Which machines wasted so much energy they needed to be retired;
  • Which machines could replace them: the latest generation or just a later model;
  • Whether you could upgrade older machines to get them closer to maximum performance.

Three years down the line, we have the world’s largest data vendor neutral data set on generation and configuration of server. We are able to accurately model the energy use per ssj operation for entire server estates based on make, model, CPU, number of CPUs and amount of memory. This enables us to identify the worst performing machines and offer consultancy on migrating workloads in order to retire them. Because we can model configuration, we can also offer consultancy on the mid-range servers to increase their efficiency with component level upgrades.

The software has other uses too. Entering location specific grid intensity data allows managers of multiple sites to migrate workloads for the lowest possible carbon emissions. It helps them report and reduce their energy and carbon usage as well as accurately measure the Scope 2 (electricity related emissions) associated with the IT estate. As our software also includes data on the amount of embodied carbon for each server, it can help Scope 3 (supply chain GHG emissions) reporting and help chart a plan for reducing this by avoiding buying too many new machines. 

Future proofing

The net result is that data centres can sweat assets if they choose. They can also ensure they do not overprovision their server estates and run assets at too low a utilisation, which in itself is a waste. Mostly, it is a way of increasing energy efficiency in a scientific way without ripping out perfectly viable servers and generating unnecessary e-waste. Sustainability is not just a buzz word – it means doing more with less in order to save resources for the future. The thought process behind Interact does just that. 

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