Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1. The floor plan of a data centre (Thiadens, 2008)
of the present generation without compromising
their ability for meeting the needs of future genera-
tions. This way, sustainability has two dimensions:
place and time.
The nineties of the previous century saw fur-
thermore the advent of the concept of corporate
responsibility or sustainable entrepreneurship. In
doing so, the maintenance or increasing of three
types of assets take central stage: economic, eco-
logical and social assets. Economic assets are the
returns of an enterprise. Ecological assets consist
of natural resources such as minerals, woods, riv-
ers and a clean environment. Social assets include
both the wellbeing of the company's own staff as
well as the wellbeing of the employees working
for suppliers. This concept is also known as 'triple
P': Profit, Planet, People.
Recent and future developments with regard to
sustainability in data centres are the subject mat-
ter of this chapter. In doing so, this chapter takes
the perspective of the processes that are involved
when realising these sustainable data centres.
These processes are trying to realise sustainability
within
ICT. This is different from sustainability
by means of
ICT. In case of sustainability by
means of ICT, the ICT is used for working more
sustainably. Sustainability in data centres is here
defined as follows:
“Sustainable working in data centres means that
these data centres use materials and energy in such
a way that the environment is burdened as little
as possible in the development, use and disposing
of materials as well as in the use of utilities such
as water, gas and electricity during the set-up,
management and operations of ICT facilities.”
THE PROCESSES FOR ARRIVING
AT MORE SUSTAINABLE
DATA CENTRES AND
THEIR POSSIBILITIES
The order of the processes, which are carried out
for arriving at more sustainable data centres are
shown in figure 2. These processes are:
a. making laws and legislation. Regarding laws
and legislation, one may on the one hand
choose obligatory legislation or on the other
hand decide on facilitating legislation. Apart
from making laws and legislation, a govern-
ment may decide to enter into binding agree-
ments with trade associations. An example
of obligatory legislation is the prohibition
on the use of particular materials. An example
of facilitating, is granting subsidies for
