Reducing Your IT Infrastructure’s Carbon Footprint: Best Practices and Solutions
The IT industry’s impact on our planet is undeniable and increasing every year. We can see the results of climate change now, not least between rising temperatures and increasingly frequent natural disasters.
IT’s carbon footprint – the causes:
✅ The generation of e-waste.
✅ The CO2 emissions and mining associated with hardware manufacture.
✅ Data centers’ growing energy consumption to power AI and Big Data.
However, businesses can make changes to reduce their IT infrastructures’ carbon footprint. Adhering to environmentally responsible best practices allows your business to contribute to a more sustainable future, while saving costs and maximizing performance.
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How does IT impact the environment?:
The first step to reduce your IT systems’ carbon footprint is understanding how your data center affects the environment. Here are some of the main ways traditional IT infrastructures contribute to carbon emissions:
IT servers consume huge amounts of energy to process data and perform complex functions. Big data and Gen AI require a lot of processing power. This means that servers use more energy than ever to keep up with demand.
The manufacture of new IT hardware emits vast amounts of greenhouse gases. This is largely a result of mechanical and chemical processing. For example, melting raw silicon to produce semi-conductors is extremely energy intensive.
The purchase, transportation, use and disposal of IT equipment all cause “indirect” greenhouse gas emissions. Almost every step of the IT lifecycle consumes power and therefore leads to the generation of CO2.
Generating electricity to power such processes means burning traditional energy sources, such as coal and oil. Burning these natural resources is what produces carbon dioxide, which traps heat in the atmosphere.
How to reduce your IT carbon footprint:
Now that you know how IT infrastructures affect the environment, the next step is to make changes to reduce this impact. Below are some effective solutions you can implement to make your data center more sustainable.
Best practice #1: Switch to renewable energy
The first solution to the problem of carbon emissions is to swap carbon-based energy sources for renewable energy. Options include wind, solar, nuclear and hydroelectric power. In a bid to keep up with AI-driven energy demand, Microsoft recently closed a deal on Three Mile Island’s nuclear power plant. This deal demonstrates an industry shift towards cleaner energy sources.
How it helps:
Renewable or “clean” energy does not burn resources and therefore does not generate greenhouse gases. It also means that they do not deplete the planet’s reserves of finite natural materials.
Best practice #2: Invest in energy-efficient cooling systems
Data centers generate considerable waste heat. Businesses therefore implement cooling systems to avoid their equipment overheating. Traditionally, such cooling depended on air conditioning, which consumes electricity.
However, modern alternatives include liquid cooling or strategic data center design (such as alternating hot/cold aisles). These newer options optimize your company’s power use.
How it helps:
Hot/cold aisles allow your company to use air conditioning only where it is necessary, reducing overall energy consumption. However, the most environmentally conscious cooling system is liquid. Water and dielectric liquids transfer heat between 50 and 1000 times more effectively than air. Liquid cooling also requires less electricity to function, making it far more energy-efficient than air conditioning.
Best practice #3: Extend your data center’s lifecycle
Many businesses replace their IT servers every 3-5 years, even if they are still functional. However, through regular maintenance and optimizations, you can extend your data center hardware’s lifecycle for years. Third-Party Maintenance providers, such as Evernex, offer the necessary support to keep your EOSL hardware performing perfectly.
Examples of how to extend the useful life of IT infrastructure include:
- Robust infrastructure management throughout its lifecycle.
- Replacing damaged or faulty components of IT infrastructure.
- Hardware and software optimizations.
How it helps:
Extending the life cycle of your IT equipment delays the need for hardware replacements. This leads to lower demand for new hardware production and a reduction in the carbon emissions associated with it.
Another benefit of reducing hardware production is the decreased demand for finite natural resources. This helps reduce the need for damaging extraction practices such as mining.
Finally, lifecycle extension delays the need to dispose of the old IT assets. E-waste is an increasingly concerning issue worldwide, with more unwanted hardware ending up in landfills every day. This equipment is then liable to leak toxic substances into the surrounding land. Extending your equipment’s lifespan avoids generating such waste and the pollution it causes.
Best practice #4: Buy refurbished hardware
Investing in refurbished hardware boasts a range of environmental benefits. Refurbished hardware has been repaired, optimized and tested to ensure it meets performance standards.
Evernex supplies refurbished IT equipment from a wide range of brands, through our Spare as a Service offering. This way, we support the circular economy and maximize the return on investment of hardware.
How it helps:
Buying refurbished devices lowers demand for brand-new hardware production and the emission-heavy processes it implies. It also gives a second life to older hardware that may otherwise end up as e-waste.
Best practice #5: Recycle old hardware
Instead of allowing your unwanted IT assets to become e-waste, recycle them. IT Asset Disposition services dismantle your infrastructure, securely erase its data and responsibly manage the hardware. This includes refurbishment, recycling and responsible disposal.
How it helps:
Recycling rare earth metals avoids the need for extraction practices and the carbon emissions they produce. Usable hardware can also be reused to extend the life of other data centers, as seen above. Finally, recycling and refurbishment contributes to decreasing the quantity of e-waste in landfills.
IT infrastructures have a considerable carbon footprint, but that doesn’t have to be the case. The IT industry is shifting towards more sustainable practices, and Evernex is at the forefront of this change. Clean energy, efficient cooling solutions and optimizing your hardware is paving the way for more environmentally responsible IT infrastructures.
