The data centre industry is one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions on the planet, dedicating one per cent of our global carbon production in total. It is also predicted that by 2030, data centres will account for eight per cent of our global electricity usage, increasing fifteen-fold from 2021 figures. This highlights that these carbon emissions are only going to continue to grow as our demand for data transfer and storage increases.
The Interreg NWE funded CEDaCI [Circular Economy for the Data Centre Industry] project is three years into the four-and-a-half-year research project, with a special focus on creating a circular approach to server design, manufacture, use and disposal.
This project is designed to chart a path toward a circular economy for the data centre industry, reducing waste and decreasing the demand on the EU’s Critical Raw Materials. Techbuyer has been a full partner of the CEDaCI project since March 2021.
With 4.2 trillion gigabytes of global data traffic every year, as well as 55 per cent of the global population connected to the internet, the data centre industry is booming. Servers are the driving force behind this data traffic and storage; however, they also have a significant environmental impact.
As explained by Astrid Wynne: “Servers were chosen (as the focus of the CEDaCI project) because the way they are made, the materials they include, and their energy draw create some of the largest environmental impacts of the data centre industry. The project has now been running for three years and has generated a blueprint for circular server design, comparative lifecycle analysis for product life extension and recycling, and a decision-making tool for those in the industry.”
In a recent guest article in the ITAM review, Techbuyer’s Sustainability Lead and Chartered Environmentalist, Astrid Wynne updates on the progress of the CEDaCI project thus far; everything that has been achieved and everything still to come.
More About CEDaCI:
- In May 2022 CEDaCI held its 14th Co-creation Workshop to further develop circularity in the IT sector. This workshop marked the first event that the project was extended to Luxembourg, Belgium and Ireland, meaning that the project now covers seven countries in North-West Europe: UK, Netherlands, France, Germany, Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg.
- London South Bank University researchers revealed that 80% of a product’s environmental impact was decided upon during the design process. This is where it is decided how reusable or recyclable a product will be, as well as the materials that will be used, including any toxic chemicals. This informed the creation of the “Circular Data Centre Compass,” (CDCC) a free-to-use tool available soon.
- The CEDaCI project offers training to SMEs throughout North-West Europe on sustainability and circularity practices. Any organisation is welcome to join the CEDaCI sessions for training or live demonstrations of the CDCC. If you are interested in attending, find out more here.
Read the full guest article by Astrid Wynne here to find out more about CEDaCI and the work they do.
Techbuyer’s Circular IT Solutions
Techbuyer is a global provider of sustainable IT solutions and a vocal advocate for circular practices within the IT industry. As such, our services are designed to encourage a circular IT economy through responsible procurement, maintenance and disposal of IT equipment, including enterprise grade hardware. Find out more about our IT Lifecycle Services here or get in touch to talk to a member of our experienced team.
Find out more about CEDaCI:
Techbuyer and CEDaCI: https://www.techbuyer.com/uk/cedaci
Full Details on the Project: https://www.cedaci.org/
Becoming a Sustainable Business
Techbuyer is a global provider of sustainable IT solutions. It won Sustainable Organisation of the Year at the UK IT Industry Awards in 2021 and Circular Economy Organisation of the Year at the IEMA awards 2020.
In episode two of our podcast series, created in collaboration with the Leader’s Council, our Sustainability Lead and Chartered Environmentalist, Astrid Wynne, talks about what it is to be a sustainable business.
Listen to the full podcast below. For an overview of the episode read our summary blog here.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
