As huge energy consumers, datacenters find their environmental performance under intense scrutiny. This report provides an overview of current environmental issues most relevant to the datacenter industry and its suppliers, including legislation, standards, metrics and other topics.

1. DATACENTER
SUSTAINABILITY
Mandates Are Grim, But Volunteering Is Vexing
As huge energy consumers, datacenters find their environmental performance
under intense scrutiny. This report provides an overview of current environmental
issues most relevant to the datacenter industry and its suppliers, including
legislation, standards, metrics and other topics.
DCT DATACENTER
TECHNOLOGIES
4 FINDINGS 5 IMPLICATIONS 1 BOTTOM LINE
• Paying for carbon is a scary • Carbon prices are a bigger • Datacenters and their suppliers
proposition for datacenter consideration for third-party are beset from all directions
operators, but the cost impacts datacenter providers and Web by a variety of environmental
may be less than many fear giants than for enterprise sites, but considerations. As always, the
– depending on the type of the former group may have more most progress will be made in
datacenter and the assumptions of control over their carbon liability. the areas where compliance is
the analysis. PAGE 13 PAGE 13 mandatory, or where sustainability
improvements align with business
• New ASHRAE standards will push • Higher electricity prices modestly
objectives. Regulations can push
datacenters toward greater use of improve the business case for
datacenters toward sustainability,
free cooling, or even pave the way efficiency, but most of the business
but they can also burden operators
for ‘chiller-less’ designs. PAGE 25 case was already there – in the
with costs and restrictions – and
form of capex savings. PAGE 13
• Voluntary standards for datacenter alter the competitive landscape
efficiency are proliferating, both • Greater use of free cooling will for suppliers. Voluntary measures
for IT and facilities. Many of these create opportunities for suppliers are more palatable, but the
standards are similar. PAGE 27 of heat-tolerant IT hardware, proliferation of standards and
optimized cooling systems and metrics can create confusion,
• There are numerous IT efficiency
datacenter management software. frustration and inaction.
metrics, but no dominant metric
PAGE 25
has emerged. PAGE 34
• Datacenter operators who select
an IT efficiency metric and strive to
improve will make progress. Those
who await the perfect metric will
continue to wait. PAGE 37
• Suppliers of datacenter
management software that
supports multiple standards and
metrics will appeal to the widest
range of customers. PAGE 37
NOVEMBER 2011
451 RESEARCH: DATACENTER TECHNOLOGIES
© 2011 THE 451 GROUP, LLC, TIER1 RESEARCH, LLC, AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

2. REPORT SNAPSHOT
TITLE Datacenter Sustainability
ANALYST John Stanley, Analyst, Datacenter Technologies
and Eco-Efficient IT
RELEASE DATE November 2011
LENGTH 52 pages
ABOUT THIS REPORT
As huge energy consumers, datacenters find their environmental performance under
intense scrutiny by regulators, customers and others. Regulations can drive datacenters
toward sustainability. However, they can also burden operators with costs and restric-
tions, and they can alter the competitive landscape for suppliers. Voluntary measures
are more palatable, but the proliferation of standards and metrics can create confusion,
frustration and inaction.
This report examines major laws, regulations and standards covering datacenter envi-
ronmental performance. It also covers metrics for evaluating sustainability, the use of
renewable energy and other issues. Taken together, these environmental issues influence
the datacenter and supplier community in a variety of ways.
451 RESEARCH: DATACENTER TECHNOLOGIES
© 2011 THE 451 GROUP, LLC, TIER1 RESEARCH, LLC, AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 KEY FINDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.1 Scope of This Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.2 References and Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.3 Other Information and Services From 451 Research . . . . . . . . 5
SECTION 2: OVERVIEW 6
SECTION 3: CARBON 8
3.1 CARBON LEGISLATION AND REGULATIONS – US . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1.1 American Clean Energy and Security Act. . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1.2 State-Level Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Figure 1: US State-Level Greenhouse Gas Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.1.3 US EPA Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases . . . . . . . . 9
3.1.4 451 Take – US Carbon Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
3.2 CARBON LEGISLATION AND REGULATIONS – NON-US . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2.1 European Union Emissions Trading System . . . . . . . . . . .10
3.2.2 UK CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2.3 Australia’s NGER Act of 2007 and Clean Energy Future Package . . .12
3.3 ANALYSIS – DATACENTER COST IMPACTS, SUPPLIER IMPACTS . . . . . 13
3.3.1 Datacenter Cost Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
3.3.2 Supplier Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
SECTION 4: OTHER LEGISLATION AND REGULATIONS IN THE US 17
4.1 US EPA ENGINE GENERATOR RULES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2 US FEDERAL EXECUTIVE ORDERS 13423 AND 13514 . . . . . . . . . 18
4.3 US SEC GUIDANCE ON CLIMATE-CHANGE DISCLOSURES . . . . . . . . 19
4.4 US FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ‘GREEN GUIDES’. . . . . . . . . . 20
DATACENTER SUSTAINABILITY
© 2011 THE 451 GROUP, LLC, TIER1 RESEARCH, LLC, AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

4. SECTION 5: RENEWABLE ENERGY, RECS AND OTHER
INSTRUMENTS 21
5.1 WHY RENEWABLE ENERGY IS IMPORTANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.2 ON-SITE RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.3 RENEWABLE ENERGY CREDITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.4 DIRECT RENEWABLE ENERGY PURCHASES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
SECTION 6: STANDARDS 25
6.1 FACILITIES STANDARDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.1.1 ASHRAE’s Updated 2011 Thermal Guidelines for Datacenters . . . .25
6.1.2 ASHRAE Economizer Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
6.1.3 California Title 24 Economizer Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
6.1.4 EU Code of Conduct for Datacenters . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
6.1.5 ENERGY STAR for Datacenters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
6.1.6 LEED for Datacenters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
6.1.7 BREEAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
6.1.8 Green Globes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
6.1.9 NABERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
6.1.10 ENERGY STAR for UPS Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
6.1.11 The 451 Take – Facilities Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
6.2 IT STANDARDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6.2.1 ENERGY STAR for Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
6.2.2 ENERGY STAR for Storage Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
6.2.3 ENERGY STAR for Desktop PCs, Laptops, Workstations. . . . . . .31
6.2.4 IEEE 1680 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
6.2.5 EPEAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
6.2.6 Climate Savers Computing Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
6.2.7 The 451 Take – IT Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
6.3 OTHER STANDARDS – ICT SECTOR SUPPLEMENT TO THE GHG
PROTOCOL PRODUCT ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING STANDARD . . . . 33
451 RESEARCH: DATACENTER TECHNOLOGIES
© 2011 THE 451 GROUP, LLC, TIER1 RESEARCH, LLC, AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5. SECTION 7: EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY METRICS 34
7.1 IT METRICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7.1.1 Relative Performance Estimate, Version 2 . . . . . . . . . . .34
7.1.2 PAR4 / UL 2640 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
7.1.3 SPEC Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
7.1.4 Green Grid Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
7.1.5 Total Processing Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
7.1.6 TPC-Energy Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
7.1.7 The 451 Take – IT Metrics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
7.2 FACILITY METRICS – PUE AND DCIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7.3 COMBINED IT-AND-FACILITY METRICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7.3.1 Green Grid’s Datacenter Maturity Model . . . . . . . . . . . .38
7.3.2 Corporate Average Datacenter Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . .39
7.4 OTHER METRICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
7.4.1 Carbon Usage Effectiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
7.4.2 Water Usage Effectiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
APPENDIX A: TIMELINE FOR SELECTED LEGISLATION
AND STANDARDS 41
APPENDIX B: SUPPLIER LISTS 42
B.1 DATACENTER ENERGY SOFTWARE SUPPLIERS . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Figure 2: Suppliers of Software for Datacenter Energy Monitoring,
Reporting, Analysis or Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
B.2 CARBON, ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
SUPPLIERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Figure 3: Suppliers of Software for Carbon, Energy and Sustainability
Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
DATACENTER SUSTAINABILITY
© 2011 THE 451 GROUP, LLC, TIER1 RESEARCH, LLC, AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

6. REFERENCES 45
451 RESEARCH REPORTS AND ‘N PLUS ONE’ IT BLOG POSTS (BY DATE). . . . 45
OTHER REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
INDEX OF COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 54
451 RESEARCH: DATACENTER TECHNOLOGIES
© 2011 THE 451 GROUP, LLC, TIER1 RESEARCH, LLC, AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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DATACENTER SUSTAINABILITY
© 2011 THE 451 GROUP, LLC, TIER1 RESEARCH, LLC, AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.