Cloud technology, data and artificial intelligence help you work and grow faster and more efficiently. You've already read more about this in our "Ready for the Future" blog series. But digitization also brings with it massive growth in data, and that is captured in data centers. These are known as power and water guzzlers. Yet there is something you can do about consumption. In this blog, I discuss how Valid helps you reduce CO2 emissions.

The latest figures from NVIDIA got me thinking. The company's revenue from data centers increased 171 percent in one year, to a total of $10.3 billion. CEO Jensen Huang, says this is due to the new computing era that has arrived. "Companies around the world are moving from general purpose computing to accelerated computing and generative AI." 

Why I find this interesting? Because of my interest in ESG. This abbreviation stands for Environment, Social and Governance. These are the main criteria for measuring sustainability. We know from NVIDIA that their "AI data centers" already use much more energy than traditional data centers. This will become much more, as the adoption of AI increases dramatically. It cannot be otherwise writes the Financieel Dagblador soon there will be so many data centers that energy production can no longer keep up. 

EU regulation 

Meanwhile, companies have to deal with Corporate Sustainability Reporting directive (CSRD) from the EU and the impending Green Deal. It requires them to take more climate-saving measures. Companies with more than 500 employees must report on their emissions. This includes cloud emissions. Our client RSM writes about this that CIOs must take the lead if they really want to work on ESG initiatives. 

Although data centers are taking many energy-saving measures, the cloud is in a negative light with the public. For example, a line through the plan for a data center of Meta (the parent of Facebook, among others) in Flevoland mainly because of concerns about energy consumption.

"The International Energy Agency says data centers worldwide account for about 3 percent of all power consumption. The Netherlands is in step with this according to CBS says. DDA points out that this percentage has been the same for years, while Internet use is rising rapidly. Policy officer Judith de Lange therefore believes that the transition to the cloud contributes to reducing emissions: "In the past, many companies had their own data center in their building or basement, which [sic] is of course less efficient than when a data center is your core business. Through centralization, a lot of energy savings have occurred." Data centers also save energy by sharing capacity; fewer resources remain idle. 

DDA says that despite the extra power consumption in data centers, working from home is a net CO2 savings. In the future, super-fast and super-efficient chips should lead to less energy consumption at data centers."

Then no cloud?

The alternative is a future without cloud services, but that seems unthinkable. For example, in recent years it has become the norm to work alternately at home and in the office. Working from home means we are on the road less and thus emit less. In addition, hyperscalers offer business advantages over in-house data centers, such as scalability, innovation and cybersecurity. Trade association Dutch Data Center Association (DDA) therefore believes that ''data centers in particular are the reason that electricity consumption in our digital society does not go out of control." 

Valid bets on green future with cloud 

Despite the sustainability challenges posed by the rise of AI, Valid is unrelenting in its commitment to cloud developments. We choose partners that help our customers achieve our shared sustainability goals: Microsoft, CloudXcellence and Nexthink. 

Thus, these brands contribute to green ambitions: 

Microsoft says having data centers in the Netherlands sets the standard for sustainability. The brand was thrown into embarrassed embarrassed when it turned out that the data center in Middenmeer was using so much water that there was a shortage of drinking water. That situation was the result of extremely hot weather. Microsoft says it normally cools its Dutch data centers primarily with outside air. "We do that about 95 percent of the year." 

Meanwhile, Microsoft has stated that it wants to be "water positive" by 2030. One way to achieve this is to collect rainwater and use it as cooling water. Microsoft is also researching alternative techniques, such as liquid cooling and data centers in cold seawater. 

What about power? Microsoft is running Dutch data centers on local wind power run. This is part of its own goal to be 2030 CO2-negative negative. Many other data centers have also switched to renewable energy sources. With the drive to net zero comes other technical measures. For example, Azure AI checks drone images of rotating wind turbines in an instant to determine whether replacement or repair of parts is needed. That saves manual labor, improves supply continuity, and also lowers the price of wind power. You can read all about Microsoft's sustainable initiatives here.

Are you already using Microsoft cloud services such as Azure and Microsoft 365? If so, Microsoft has developed a calculator for you to use to calculate your own cloud footprint. Understanding your own CO2 emissions is often the first step towards zero emissions by your company. Valid puts a lot of energy 😉 into its "Microsoft-first strategy" partly for this reason.  

Then CloudXcellence: the CSRD legislation is a real driver for digital sustainability. The CloudXcellence sustainability dashboard not only shows CO2 emissions but also provides guidance for GreenOps. For example, by showing which Microsoft Azure services generate the most emissions and how to reduce them. But you can also see which datacenters emit the least, allowing you to really focus on this strategically. 

CloudXcellence also makes recommendations that IT experts can use to lower costs and reduce emissions. Do settings still match current Azure usage? Are storage tiers performing as desired? Are things under- or over-provisioned? CloudXcellence helps you easily reassess cloud usage and make optimizations. 

Finally, Nexthink. That focuses on improving the Digital Employee Experience. That can go hand in hand with customers' Green IT goals. For example, Nexthink indicates that a computer that takes longer than five minutes to boot up produces emits at least 450 tons of CO2 per year. By comparison, a household in the Netherlands annually emits on average 19 tons emissions. 

Nexthink has developed "The Green IT Library Pack" with actionable dashboards such as:  

• Identification of sources of (unnecessary) energy consumption on the computers, hardware components and IT infrastructure;
• Encourage best practices with targeted communication to employees ("Turn off your PC after working hours, how much energy will you save?") and possibly "remote actions" to set certain energy consumption settings remotely;
• Prevent hardware waste by tracking users with unused hardware or detecting devices whose life cycle can be extended. 

For example, see here how, thanks to this technology, we can both improve the employee experience and make a positive contribution to reducing the energy consumption of a workplace.   

Compared to the current Non Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), which dates back to 2014, the CSRD leads to mandatory auditing of more detailed reporting requirements and mandates the use of the EU Taxonomy (reporting standards). If you want to know more about the relationship between the CSRD, the EU Taxonomy and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFRD) read, for example this blog.

The CSRD uses a double materiality approach. This means that organizations must evaluate both the impact of their activities on ESG factors ("inside out") and the financial impact of ESG factors on the organization itself ("outside in") in their annual report. This double materiality approach takes into account the various stakeholders: investors, employees, customers, supply chain partners, and ultimately the society in which the organization operates.  

Getting better with insights 

Saving CO2 by optimizing cloud usage doesn't have to take a lot of time, but it does need to be done from time to time. CloudXcellence, for Azure, and Nexthink offer steering information for this that is both simple and actionable. 

You probably don't give much thought to the carbon footprint generated by the daily use of hardware and software. However, partly due to CSRD legislation, it is more relevant than ever to think about the impact of your cloud consumption. You can start mapping emissions from your cloud usage today to gain insight into where there are opportunities for reduction. If you seize these, it will immediately result in nice financial savings. You can use that for other cloud projects that help you operate in a greener and more socially responsible way.