On December 4, 2024, the DCD 2025 Trends and Outlooks: Energy and Sustainability Panel brought together industry leaders to discuss how the sector can address these challenges. Hosted by Emma Brookes of Data Centre Dynamics, the panel featured Vicki Worden of the Green Building Initiative, Jennifer Ruch of Oracle, and Anna Dowson, GreenScale’s Senior Director of Sustainability.
Together, the panel explored how collaborative efforts can drive meaningful change in sustainability and ESG practices. From regulatory compliance to technological innovation, the panel underscored the importance of a united approach. Anna, a recent inductee into the iMason 100, has extensive experience in initiatives that integrate environmental priorities with operational strategies. Her work at GreenScale focuses on innovative energy solutions, transparent sustainability reporting, and compliance with evolving standards—all pivotal in driving the company’s commitment to sustainable operations.
Below are five of the key issues that Anna and the panel members reviewed:
The 2023 revised European Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) has reshaped sustainability practices in the data centre sector, requiring mandatory reporting on metrics such as power and water usage effectiveness as well as waste heat recovery. As the panel discussed, the directive’s holistic approach is a critical step in ensuring sustainability, which is not an abstract concern but crucial to ensuring meaningful societal and fiscal progress. Anna elaborated that the directive needs to evolve from it’s current status as a reporting framework, utilising insights from the vast amounts of data collated to inform minimum performance standards focused on embedding sustainability into design and operational practices.
The panel also explored innovations such as AI-driven energy optimisation, predictive maintenance, and the opportunity for demand-side flexibility. Underscoring the untapped potential in addressing grid intermittency through advanced battery storage solutions, these solutions can enhance grid resilience and create opportunities to integrate more renewable energy into the system. Anna argued that data centres should do more to positively contribute to the energy ecosystem, helping balance intermitted renewable energy generation, participating in demand response programmes to provide reserve power when needed, and/or supporting grid balancing services.
Regarding community benefit, Anna elaborated upon the significance of fostering positive relationships with local communities. Highlighting the capacity for data centres to drain local grids, she emphasised the importance of proactive engagement with residents and the need to counteract this key issue through transparent communication and tangible actions. As has been often pointed out, active investment in local infrastructure and implementing sustainable practices can enable data centres to mitigate opposition and contribute to broader societal benefits, creating a win-win scenario for operators and communities. She also emphasized the need to really get to know the community and what really matters to them, enabling the development of a bespoke plan to drive positive change.
While the industry has made strides in managing Scope One and Two emissions, Scope Three remains a significant challenge due to its inherent complexity and reliance on stakeholders up and down the value chain. Though equally crucial to address, Anna pointed out that the intrinsic broadness of Scope Three makes it inherently more challenging to quantify. She advocated for more robust data collection and collaboration across the ICT sector to ensure reporting standardisation, greater accountability and accuracy. Ultimately, it is important not to be ‘paralysed’ by the perceived complexity of reporting on Scope Three emissions. Anna suggests starting with estimates as a solid first step to help identify emissions hotspots and prioritise actions likely to have the most impact.
The discussion touched on the potential of alternative cooling technologies to improve energy efficiency in data centres, especially in high-density environments. Anna and the wider panel addressed the challenges posed by AI’s growing energy demands, noting that while AI applications can strain the grid, they also provide tools for optimising operations and automating sustainability reporting. Many AI applications are less sensitive to latency concerns, opening up the opportunity for data centres to be located in areas where abundant renewable energy is available. Meanwhile, when paired with liquid cooling, high-density computing can also reduce the physical footprint of data centres while producing higher-grade heat, which can more easily be exported for use by local businesses and/or homes. Striking the right balance, Anna emphasised, will be essential to harnessing AI’s benefits without exacerbating its drawbacks.
Whether you’re interested in sustainable solutions, collaboration opportunities, ethical sourcing, or advancing your digital infrastructure, we’d love to hear from you. Connect with us today and ask how we can accelerate positive change together.
