Digital infrastructure, including equipment used in data centers and telecom networks, can consume a lot of energy. A new initiative from the Uptime Institute aims to recognize organizations that are taking steps to make their digital infrastructure more sustainable. It also aims to aid and incentivize organizations to make continuous progress on that front.

The newly launched Uptime Institute Sustainability Assessment includes benchmarking and digital infrastructure sustainability credentials as well as sustainability assessments. It covers applications based on enterprise-operated data centers and colocation data centers, along with those hosted by hyperscalers, managed service providers or other third parties.

Digital Infrastructure Sustainability

The institute positions the program as a ubiquitous endeavor that will provide participating organizations with a clear and up-to-date view of their status and achievements in sustainability. It will operate “across a wide range of independent and interdependent corporate functions and criteria, and then monitor and demonstrate progress over time, both internally and externally,” according to the organization’s announcement.

More specifically, the program will look at steps taken and progress made in 14 categories and 50 subcategories.

Areas assessed include IT equipment, energy and water usage and carbon emissions and waste, including reuse and recycling of end-of-life equipment. It spans IT operations and management, facility operations and management and cross-functional areas such as clean energy/IT, facilities equipment procurement and corporate greenhouse gas reporting.

There is a tremendous amount of work to be done. The Uptime Institute found that “fewer than half of digital infrastructure operators are compiling and reporting water usage (41%), only a fourth (26%) track IT waste or recycling, and only 23% compile and report all three Scopes (1,2, and 3) of carbon emissions.”

At the same time, the Institute says that data centers’ individual and collective energy use and carbon emissions increasingly are being scrutinized by regulators, legislators, customers and investors, who are calling for greater transparency in this area.

The Uptime Institute Sustainability Assessment draws on more than 150 current and proposed standards worldwide. The group worked with more than two dozen enterprises and service providers that collectively have more than 3 gigawatts of installed capacity in 38 countries. The assessment is applicable around the world.

“[The] assessment has been designed to help data center owner-operators and service provider communities build, deploy, benchmark and manage impactful and practical sustainability programs that deliver tangible results,” said Ali Moinuddin, chief corporate development officer, Uptime Institute.

“The Sustainability Assessment will allow organizations to identify which sustainability initiatives can help reduce the environmental impact and operating expenses of their specific data center operating modality and deployment architecture without compromising the availability and resiliency of their mission-critical digital infrastructure.”