Transformative Approuch to Data Centre Sustainability

Techbuyer has been a corporate member of the Data Centre Alliance (DCA) for almost five years now. Our membership – and eventual chair of the Sustainability Special Interest Group - has allowed us to learn a lot about the data centre sector and market in Europe as well as lead some fantastic discussions with experts in the industry from a range of disciplines. It has been a real pleasure to hear the views of engineers, academics and consultants who have an in-depth understanding of energy, construction and mechanical and electrical equipment as well as those focusing on understanding more about measuring the impact of the lifecycle of all of the above.

The fruits of our work with the Sustainability Special Interest Group were publicly launched on May 12th at Data Centre Transformation in Birmingham. Months of meetings and insights from guest speakers resulted in the first of its kind Sustainability Best Practice Document from the DCA, written by Techbuyer with input from a wide range of experts in the space. It is half call to action and half discussion starter, highlighting five steps all organisations can take now to improve sustainability practice and opening up conversations on how this can be improved.

With this in mind, Techbuyer chaired the “Sustainability Building Blocks” panel at the event, which brought together Deborah Andrews from the CEDaCI project, Colin Curtis from Support the Goals and Sophie Parry from Zumbotel. We discussed the sustainability issues that should be at the front of our minds as we develop the UK data centre sector. These range much further than the traditional concerns on energy efficiency and skills into Circular Economy, social impacts and long term aims.    

DCA conferences are always a pleasure to attend because they the voices of those with decades of experience with those of individuals from outside the sector, who add their own perspectives on the key issues. The theme was very much showcasing the relationship between data centres and “UK Plc” – how home-grown talent can mark the country out as a leader in the digital space. The event was also an excellent opportunity to promote the Midlands as a new frontier for the UK data centre sector. Attendees included UK businesses and training institutions, as well as representatives from local and national government.

One talk that was particularly well-received was given by our Director of Research and Sustainability, Rich Kenny in partnership with the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). BEIS is responsible for Innovate UK, which sponsors Knowledge Transfer Projects. Rich partnered their introduction into the programme – which pairs cutting edge research with real-life business applications – with our own success story with the University of East London.

The project resulted in our sister company Interact. Launched in 2021, its first tool recommended per-data-centre savings of £880,000, 8.3kWh and 2,800 tonnes of CO2e thanks to its unique ability to optimise IT hardware for energy and cost-efficiency. It also won a slew of industry awards and signed some huge clients, proving that the KTP system can certainly pay dividends to the UK economy. As one of the KTP team at Techbuyer who now works with Interact, it was great to see us demonstrate that environmental benefits align with cost benefits for so many organisations in the sector.