Jay is the Research Director of Sustainability at Uptime Institute. Dietrich looks beyond the hype to analyze the transformations required in energy and IT systems, data centers and software management systems, and intra-organizational collaboration, both within and between companies, to deliver sustainable data center operations.
jdietrich@uptimeinstitute.com
The data center industry has struggled to design and implement a meaningful measurement of deployed and utilized server work capacity and storage product terabyte capacity. Recent publications by The Green Grid and Uptime Institute offer the tools…
The European Commission aims to ease climate risk reporting by removing mid-cap operators from CSRD's scope and delaying reports to 2028. But under current rules, 2025 reports are required and foreign-owned mid-cap operators stay covered.
Uptime Institute provided three documents to the EU Commission and their consultants, Ernest and Young and Borderstep, in response to two surveys. The surveys are intended to gather data to facilitate the development of a data center labeling/rating…
Critics argue that data center water use is excessive and poorly managed. Operators should select a cooling system to fit the local climate and available water supply, explaining water use within the context of local conditions.
Rapidly increasing electricity demand requires new generation capacity to power new data centers. What are some of the new, innovative power generation technology and procurement options being developed to meet capacity growth and what are their…
The European Commission, with the assistance of operators, needs to correct ambiguities in the EED reporting processes. Industry solutions can improve the quality and completeness of the submitted data.
The European Commission will soon publish its delegated report, recommending a data center rating scheme and performance standards. The accelerated timeline is too short to facilitate meaningful evaluation of these topics.
The New York state senate recently proposed legislation mandating data center information reporting and operational requirements. Although the Bill is unlikely to pass, the legislation indicates a likely framework for future regulation
The data center industry's growth projections can be met by combining energy supply growth and demand reduction. Highly utilized IT infrastructure and efficient software can mitigate demand growth while delivering needed IT capacity.
If adopted, the UNEP U4E server and storage product technical specifications may create a confusing and counter-productive regulatory structure. The current proposals are as likely to limit as improve data center operations' efficiency
As the industry power demand grows, IT operators must focus on both IT infrastructure power demand and supply. A portion of the required power growth can be eliminated through better utilization of existing and new IT infrastructure and software…
The UNEP U4E initiative has proposed guidelines for data center design and operation and server and storage product efficiency requirements. These have far-reaching implications for data center operations in developing countries.
Data center operators building new systems can choose from nine categories of cooling technology. Innovative cooling equipment has minimized energy and water use and the average PUE for air-cooled and water-cooled systems.
The Netherlands is now enforcing the energy saving obligation, suggesting they will also enforce EED energy management system and audit requirements. Data center operators need to establish a plan to optimize their energy performance.
Some operators are using natural gas for on-site power where the local grid is constrained. This will increase their emissions - but gas is essential in the transition to renewable energy and operators' use of it is best seen in this light.
