Sustainable data centers require sustainable construction
随着通过节能增效实现数据中心可持续发展进入平稳时期，未来使用清洁建筑材料降低碳足迹将有更多优化空间。
Sustainability gains through energy efficiency will eventually plateau, but there’s much work to be done around the carbon footprint of building materials
May 12, 2021 By Dan Swinhoe
近些年，倡导节能可持续发展的举措在IDC行业可以说是频频涌现。早些年，亚马逊、微软、谷歌这些超大规模数据中心都已经带头做出了碳中和承诺，并大量投资采购绿色能源。2021年开始，秦淮数据、MTN、IBM也开始采取行动，宣布其在2040年前实现碳中和的目标。
There’s no shortage of sustainable activity going in the data center space. Hyperscalers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have made carbon-neutral commitments and have made significant investments in sourcing renewable energy for their facilities. And in 2021 alone, the likes of ChinData, MTN, and IBM have made similar pledges to become carbon neutral before 2040.
事实上，热门话题更多是围绕在优化运维可持续性、降低耗电量、使用清洁能源、通过集中供热和自然冷却技术实现减碳甚至零碳等。
However, much of the conversation is still around operational sustainability and ensuring the facilities use as little power as possible, use green energy where they can, and have minimal or even carbon negative impacts on the local area through district heating initiatives and natural cooling.
然而，数据中心营建阶段和建筑材料带来的环境影响有没有被真正关注呢？数据中心建设需要大量混凝土和钢筋，它们是二氧化碳的主要来源，因此只通过运维侧节能增效可能远远不够，数据中心厂商们应该开始思考如何在营建阶段降低碳排放。
But is enough thought being given to the environmental impact of the construction phase around data centers and the material impact of the construction materials they use? Data centers use huge amounts of concrete and steel, which are major sources of CO2, and as the sustainability gains from operational efficiencies dry up, firms will have to look to embodied carbon in the construction phase if they are serious about being climate neutral.
国际组织Building Transparency的主席兼执行董事Stacy Smedley认为，“当下，绿色建筑更多关注的是在运营侧降低能耗（制冷、供电等），这部分能耗容易测量，且效果显著”。
“Until now, the modern green building movement has largely focused on reducing operational energy – the energy used to heat, cool, and power buildings – which is easy to see and measure,” says Stacy Smedley, Chair and Executive Director of Building Transparency.“While this effort has produced many successes, it’s not enough.”
Embodied carbon the next phase
采矿、采伐、加工、制造、交通和建筑材料产生的温室气体总和中隐含的碳，是全球碳排放的主要来源。
Embodied carbon is the sum of all the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from the mining, harvesting, processing, manufacturing, transportation and installation of building materials, and is a major source of carbon globally.
钢筋水泥是碳密集型建筑材料，在数据中心建设中应用广泛。平均一吨水泥产出1.25吨二氧化碳，主要来自烤石灰石和硅土。因此，建筑贡献了40%全球温室气体排放和40%原材料消耗。
Cement and steel are the most carbon-intensive construction materials, two materials data centers use in abundance. On average, a ton of cement will produce 1.25 tons of CO2, largely from the roasted limestone and silica. And as a result, buildings are responsible for around 40 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions and 40 percent of all raw material consumption.
Building Transparency认为，建筑材料中的隐含碳占建筑总碳的一半，数据中心作为能源密集型建筑则碳排放更高。“数据中心运营过程中产生的碳可能是建筑材料中隐含碳的两倍，因此大家都一直特别关注运营侧”，英国Linesight的总经理Michael Riordan认为。
Building Transparency says embodied carbon makes up half of a building’s total carbon emissions, but with data centers, the fact they are energy-intensive powered shells changes the equation slightly. The operational carbon impact of a data center can be more than twice the embodied carbon impact, according to Michael Riordan, Managing Director of Linesight UK, and focus has historically been on the operational side more than the embodied carbon aspect.
然而，由于数据中心规模体量越来越大，建筑材料中的隐含碳排放不容忽视。
However, due to their large size and ever-increasing number, it’s not a topic that should be avoided just because there are more savings to be had in operations.
“用不了多久，随着风能、太阳能和其它可再生能源成为主流，关注重点则会转向如何去减少建筑材料中的隐含碳排放”，Syska Hennessy集团的Rob Ioanna认为。
“At some point, most energy is going to come from wind, solar, and other renewable types of sources,” says Rob Ioanna, Principal at Syska Hennessy, “And when that happens, the conversation is starting to turn to embodied carbon because that's really going to be where we're going to have emissions reductions.”
围绕可持续营建这个话题，运营侧一直备受关注，比如：如何提高制冷效率，如何回收设备产生的余热，是不是使用了清洁能源，是不是有比柴发更环保的备用电源等。
Much of the construction considerations around sustainability still revolve around the impact of operations; how to cool the servers in the most energy-efficient way, what to do with excess heat IT hardware generates, whether the facility uses renewable power, or if there more sustainable options for backup than diesel generators.
但是，随着IT设备不断迭代更新，电网发电越来越依赖清洁能源，在未来仅仅只是关注运营侧的节能增效和可持续性已经远远不够。
These are important considerations, but IT hardware continues to evolve and become more efficient, and energy grids rely more on renewable energy, the sustainability gains and carbon reduction companies are looking to make will be harder to come by through operational efficiencies alone.
“运营过程中碳排放的减少和清洁能源的使用，使建筑材料中产生的碳排放成为数据中心建设过程中最大的碳源。”Smedley认为“一些大型数据中心厂商已经通过采购100%绿电的形式在理论上实现了碳中和，但却忽略了建筑材料中的隐含碳排放。”
“As we start to reduce our operational emissions and the energy grid start to get cleaner, emissions of the materials that we're building with on our construction projects actually become a larger source of emissions,” says Smedley. “For some of these large data center owners that are already purchasing 100 percent green energy for some of their markets and projects, they'll already view themselves as carbon neutral on the energy side, and for those owners, the embodied carbon emissions are really what's left to tackle.”
事实上，数据中心行业在建设方面要求标准化和规范化，因此，一旦有一座数据中心实行了低碳实践和标准，在这个行业中则很容易被复制和推广。
The fact that data centers are often fairly standardized in their construction also means once low-carbon practices and standards have been established at one facility it should be easy to replicate across future facilities without too much heavy lift.
Slow progress in CO2 reduction
Linesight的Riordan认为，一个数据中心建设过程中产生的碳足迹来源，混凝土通常占40%，燃油占25%，钢筋和钢架各占10%。实行低碳措施可减少13%新建数据中心过程中产生的碳，如果是改建项目，可减少更多碳排放。
Linesight’s Riordan says that concrete often accounts for as much as 40 percent of a data center's construction, followed by fuel (~25 percent) and then steel – both reinforcement and structural – which can account for 10 percent of a project’s carbon footprint each. He adds that adopting low carbon approaches to new builds can result in 13 percent less carbon during construction, but repurposing a building saves a lot more.
新建数据中心过程中产生的碳是改建项目的8倍，所以升级改造旧机房可以减少78%的碳排放。全球水泥与混凝土协会（GCCA）承诺2050年前实现零碳混凝土。实现目标没有捷径，研究如何降低这个关键建筑材料的碳足迹已经成为热门趋势和课题。
Building a new facility creates eight times as much carbon as repurposing, so upgrading an old building can save 78 percent of the carbon emissions of construction. The Global Cement and Concrete Association has committed to zero emissions concrete by 2050. And while there will be no silver bullet to reach that goal, there are a number of startups and trends in the materials space looking to reduce the carbon impact of this core building material.
CarbonCure公司通过将废弃CO2注射入混合物中降低混凝土的碳排放。预计在2030年前，这项技术在混凝土行业中每年可脱除500兆吨的CO2。CarbonCure的客户Compass Data Centers的CIO Nancy Novak告诉DCD，“这项技术预计可实现每个园区脱除平均1800吨CO2，并且公司目前也在研发其它建筑材料减碳的技术”。亚马逊和微软也投资了此公司。
CarbonCure reduces the emissions of the concrete industry, by injecting waste CO2 into the mix. It hopes to remove 500 megatons of carbon dioxide annually from the concrete industry by 2030. Compass Data Centers are a CarbonCure customer, with CIO Nancy Novak saying the company estimates an average of 1,800 tons of CO2 per campus as a result. Amazon and Microsoft have also invested in the company. Novak tells DCD that Compass are also looking into other embodied carbon technologies for aggregate.
Novak认为，数据中心建设过程中产生的弃土可以处理后作为结构填充，或者运至附近有其它需要清洁填充的项目。如果弃土不适合回用，则可用于修建截水沟和自然景观，既能提高安全性又能增加场地绿化。2018年，AWS利用其斯德哥尔摩数据中心产生的10万吨弃土提高了Vilsta滑雪度假村10米海拔。
In terms of the spoil or ground that is raised during a data center’s construction, Novak says Compass will process it so it can be used for structural fill whenever possible, and will check if other projects in the vicinity of the site need clean fill before hauling it. If the spoils are unsuitable for structure, Compass will often make berms and natural landscapes to enhance security and add to the amount of green space on a campus. In 2018, AWS used 100,000 tons of spoil from its Stockholm data center to raise the altitude of the Vilsta ski resort by ten meters.
Novak补充到，“异地施工是减少碳足迹的关键，我们要始终明白，制造、运输和使用本地材料、环保材料才是至关重要的。无论从先进的包装、预制组件到全模块化建筑，都应该在建筑行业中被更广泛采用和标准化。
She adds that more offsite construction is key to reducing impact. “We need to be thinking in the mindset of manufacturing, where transportation and utilization of local materials as well as sustainable materials, is paramount.”“Everything from advanced work packaging, prefabricated components and fully modularized rooms and buildings, needs to be more widely adopted and normalized in the construction industry.”
一些建筑设计公司告诉DCD，对于隐含碳排放的话题关注度越来越高，但推动缓慢。“在一些公司，可持续发展部门在早期设计阶段就开始介入。“Leading Edge Design Group（LEDG）的主席兼创始人Todd Boucher认为，“当从关键业务的角度看数据中心建设时，我们其实是试图将可持续发展议题围绕着如何帮助改善环境影响且不影响可靠性，但是我不认为议题超出了隐含碳和可持续性的范畴。
A number of architecture and design firms tell DCD that broadly we are still very early in the conversation around embodied carbon, but progress is being made slowly as awareness of the issues increases. There are clients that engage their sustainability teams really early on in the design process, says Todd Boucher, Principal & Founder, Leading Edge Design Group (LEDG), “and in other cases where the construction is more driven from that mission-critical sort of viewpoint, we find ourselves trying to weave in the sustainability discussion around how we could help improve the net environmental impact without an impact on reliability. But I don't think the conversation has extended far beyond efficiency into embedded carbon and sustainability. ”
有越来越多的IDC厂商开始关注绿色建筑材料，Digital Reality宣布其位于加州圣克拉拉的数据中心（建筑共4层占地4万平米）使用了可回收的混凝土和钢筋等可再生材料。
There are increasing examples of companies looking to green materials; Digital Reality announced it was using ‘sustainable materials, including recycled concrete and steel’ in its 430,000 square foot (40,000 sqm), four-story expansion of its Santa Clara campus in California.
JB Associates的总经理Ashley Buckland认为，“建设过程中，运输原材料这部分产生的碳足迹很高，因此一些大公司会考虑尽量采用本地原材料或工人”。
“Transportation from manufacturing yards to sites is a massive part of the carbon footprint on construction,” says Ashley Buckland, managing director at JB Associates. “Big companies are now looking at transportation and where materials or parts are coming from, and if they can source local materials or workers they will.”
建筑公司Reid Brewin Architects的联合创始人Adrian Brewin说，”近几年，厂商对选用本地原材料或本地供应商的认知度越来越高，比如地毯的原材料来自于可回收的瓶子等，已经成为行业趋势“。
“We’ve seen materials, such as carpets made from recycled bottles becoming more prevalent in recent years,” says Adrian Brewin, co-founder of Reid Brewin Architects, “and clients are more conscious of the origins of materials such as tiling – opting for local suppliers rather than exotic ones.”
还有一些报道是关于一种名为环保再造砖（eco-brick）的建筑材料，通常由新型可回收的或有机材料制成。最近，在伦敦展示了一种由蘑菇和锯屑制成的eco-brick，还有些是由建筑垃圾、丝瓜络、矿泉水瓶等制成。但是目前没有人知道这些创新发明是否可应用于实践。
There’s also a regular stream of news about eco-bricks being made from novel recycled or organic materials. Most recently, bricks made from mushrooms and sawdust were shown in London, but there are others made of everything from construction and demolition waste to loofahs or reused water bottles. However, no one DCD spoke to knew if some of these innovations were ready for prime time.
Brewin 认为，“在未来10-20年间，这些新型、有机、可回收的建筑材料会被应用在大规模工程项目中，但监管部门至少需要10年去完善相关的合规体系，从而实现工业级量产这种新材料”。
“Increasingly novel, innovative, recycled, and organic materials are likely to be used in different aspects of large-scale construction within the next [10-20] years,” says
Brewin, “but the regulatory systems that are required to approve the industrial processes needed to produce such solutions, to the sheer volume we would need, will likely take tens of years to implement.”
尽管如此，不代表多数IDC厂商愿意承担使用这种新型建筑材料带来的财务风险。LEDG的Boucher认为，“如果新型材料未经长时间考验，把他们用在修建那些承担核心业务的数据中心中，风险无法预知。“
And just because data centers could be built, or even 3D printed, from such novel materials doesn’t mean many firms will be willing to take the financial or resiliency risks to use them in construction.“Owners adopt low-risk mindsets,” says LEDG’s Boucher. “If materials may not be proven enough yet, it would be a challenge to implement them in a data center environment that has any form of mission criticality.”
这种风险最小化的做法，也说明了一个数据中心高冗余的重要性远超于它的可持续性。然而，随着IDC厂商的去集中化和布局边缘数据中心/可用区的趋势，每个小节点的环境影响会降低，这样一来给一些小型数据中心创造了更多的引入节能措施的机会。
This low risk mindset also means resilience and redundancy are higher on the list of priorities than sustainability. However, as companies move more towards fewer centralized facilities and more Edge data centers and availability zones, the environmental impact per site lowers. This creates more opportunity to introduce greener thinking into smaller sites.
“在IDC行业，大多数决策的制定是基于高可用性和高可靠性。但是，随着混合云的广泛应用和数据中心的地域多元化，我们逐渐弱化了对数据中心设计建设高标准的苛求。尽管数据中心的高可靠性仍然是摆在首位，但不是唯一的关注重点，我们也应该将节能增效和碳中和的理念融入到数据中心建设中“，Boucher认为。
“We are an industry that has rightfully been completely focused on availability and reliability. And that has governed most decision-making. But with the utilization of hybrid cloud models and the geographic diversification of data centers, we are moving away from the idea that a data center has to be this huge monolithic Tier IV facility,” he says.“And because of that softening of the perspective, we now can integrate different elements about energy efficiency and carbon neutrality into the conversation that are not solely focused on reliability, even if that still always has to be the number one part of the conversation.”
很显然，有效利用现有的建筑物是一种比新建更可持续的做法。Serverfarm公司计算得出，再利用现有建筑物比新建项目减少88%的隐含碳排放。
Obviously utilizing existing buildings where possible is more sustainable than building new. Serverfarm calculates that reused existing buildings can deliver embodied carbon savings of 88 percent compared with the material carbon cost of new projects.
设计公司HKS对Serverfarm一座位于芝加哥的25MW六层高占地14000平方米的数据中心进行了分析，发现改造扩建现有建筑碳排放量预计1000吨，而新建一座一摸一样的数据中心预估产生9000吨碳排放，如此大的差距主要是因为节省了大量混凝土。
Design firm HKS analyzed Serverfarm’s 25MW, six-story 150,000 square feet (14,000 sq m) Chicago facility, and found that the carbon cost of building an equivalent building would create over 9,000 tons of carbon emissions, compared to 1,000 tons for building reuse and expansion. Almost all of that saving would come through the reduction in concrete.
Data and benchmarks are needed for sustainable construction
在有关绿色建筑的标准和认证中，LEED可能是最被广泛认可的，它关注到了建筑的完整生命周期。测量和治理施工过程中产生的和建筑材料中隐含的碳排放以及所造成的环境影响并不容易，因此指定一个有效的测量基准，是IDC厂商下一步面临的难题。
While there are standards & certifications around sustainable buildings – LEED is probably the most well-known – they often focus on the entirety of a building’s lifecycle. Measuring and tracking embodied carbon and the environmental impact of construction and building materials can be difficult, and so creating effective benchmarks from which to measure yourself and others against, and start to make a change, hasn’t historically been easy for companies.
Linesight的Riordan指出，“隐含碳排放本质上更难测量。毋庸置疑，数据是量化、理解、降低建设过程中的环境影响的基础，数据测量的准确，应对措施才更有效”。
“Embodied carbon is inherently more difficult to measure and track,” says Linesight’s Riordan. “Data is undoubtedly fundamental in quantifying, understanding and reducing the environmental impact within the construction space. What gets measured gets managed.”
LEDG的Boucher也指出，“当我们的测量方法和数据接近标准化且具备通用性时，就有可能创建类一个似于PUE的指标，公司可以用来量化和衡量隐含碳排放的影响”。
LEDG’s Boucher says that when we have a more standardized commonality of language and data, it might be then possible to create something akin to a PUE against which firms might be able to quantify and benchmark their embodied carbon impact against.
有不少项目和生命周期分析工具都在研究如何更有效的测量、理解、降低建设过程中的隐含碳。EU投资的BAMB项目就提出了“材料护照（Material Passport）”这个概念，它可以帮助组织了解材料的来源和如何选择可回收材料。
There are a number of projects and lifecycle tools looking at how to better measure, understand, and reduce the embodied carbon of construction projects. The EU-funded BAMB project is working on Materials Passports that can help organizations understand the provenance of materials and become more comfortable choosing recycled materials.
在Building Transparency的“工程计算器隐含碳（EC3）”项目中，搜集了环保产品声明（简称EPDs，该数据由第三方验证披露，包含有关于碳排放的影响，比如每单位产生的公斤碳等）的数据并将其整理成一个免费且开源工具，用户可以在规划建设项目中输入自己使用的材料。
Another project is the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) from Building Transparency. EC3 takes the Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) – which are third party verified disclosures that detail information around carbon impact, including kilogram of carbon per unit. EC3 takes disclosed EPDs and collates them in a free and open source tool in which users can input their own materials-use during a planned construction project.
然后根据单个产品的碳影响创建材料账单和成本估算，使用户能够轻松地看到他们选择的材料对环境的影响，同时也看看是否有更环保的替代品可用。
It then creates what is essentially a bill of materials and cost estimate in terms of carbon impact per item, allowing users to easily see the environmental impact of their material choices, but also see if there are more sustainable alternatives available.
EC3工具包不仅能够帮助参与筛选和采购材料的公司有能力选择更环保的产品，且鼓励材料供应商去生产更绿色环保的材料。
The hope is not only that firms involved in choosing and procuring materials will opt for greener choices, but that the firms supplying materials will be forced to make all their products greener as a result of losing business.
“越来越多的用户开始寻求低碳产品意味着越来越多的制造商开始生产低碳产品，整个产业链也将从中受益”。
“Having these owners start to ask for lower-carbon products means the manufacturers start to create lower-carbon products, which then the whole industry benefits from.”
Smedley 指出，EC3项目的其中一个目标就是创建一套易于使用的工具包，方便与现有流程融合，即便不是建筑或碳核算行业专家，也能迅速理解并上手。碳领导力论坛（Carbon Leadership Forum）早期发布的基准可供企业进行自评，Smedley说，“通过使用EC3工具，公司已经看到碳减排30%。EC3可以帮助标识符从碳排放的角度开发设计上限或基准，然后将这些规格写入招投标文件中”。
Smedley says one of the goals of EC3 is to make a tool that is easy to use and allow it to be integrated easily into existing processes without heavy lift and that people who aren’t experts in building lifecycles or carbon footprints can quickly use and understand. Early benchmarks from the Carbon Leadership Forum have been released for companies to rate themselves against, and Smedley says companies are already seeing a 30 percent carbon reduction against that high benchmark through using the EC3 tool.“It helps specifiers start to develop designs limits or benchmarks, from a carbon perspective, and these specifications then get into the bid documents.”
微软是EC3工具的早期合作伙伴，曾经在其华盛顿园区和数据中心的改造项目中使用EC3帮助其选取低碳建筑材料。
Microsoft was an early pilot partner of the tool, and the company has been using it in its Washington campus remodel as well as its data centers in order to choose lower carbon building materials.
Turner Construction和Mercury分别是美国和欧洲的工程公司，具有建造大型数据中心的实践经验，也都是EC3项目的合作伙伴。Smedley指出，特别是超大型IDC厂商，因为考虑其运营的数据中心体量之大数量之多，他们会格外关注隐含碳排放。同样，虽然企业数据中心的数量和规模可能小于超大型IDC厂商和托管提供商，但这些公司通常拥有庞大的商业房地产，可以将营建可持续性这个概念在其供应链中传播，从而影响其上下游供应链。
As well as Microsoft, Turner Construction and Mercury - US and European construction firms with large data center practices - are both pilot partners for the EC3 program. Smedley says its important that data center firms, especially the hyperscalers, take an interest in reducing their embodied carbon footprint due to the sheer number of facilities they run, both data center and otherwise. Likewise, while enterprise data centers may be smaller in number and size than hyperscalers and colo providers, those companies often have large commercial real estate footprints they can transfer sustainable thinking to and from and likely can impact their construction supply chains.
在数据中心领域，很多大型厂商有多种不同类型的建设项目，他们可以通过把低碳建筑材料应用到各种建筑类型中，刺激整个行业并从中受益。通常是大型企业先牵头做，小企业可以从之前的经验实践中找到有效的实施方法，从而降低风险或成本。
“In the data center space, a lot of the players are very large companies that have a ton of other types of projects they're building where they can really kind of spur the market and benefit all of their building types by getting to these lower-carbon materials. It's the big players that lead and make it easier for the smaller ones to see they can implement it without much risk or cost.”
Smedley认为，下一步则要重点关注数据中心的机电系统，比如柴发等设备如何从生产源头降低碳排放。
The next step, Smedley says, will be looking at mechanical systems, and the carbon impact of materials such as generators with the hope of reducing the emissions from their manufacture.
Carrot and the stick: money talks
尽管大型、超大型企业已经做出了实现碳中的承诺，但可能仍需要政府和投资者通过财政激励的措施以吸引规模较小的公司和那些更重视投资回报的公司。
While the hyperscalers and largest companies are already committing to carbon-neutral pledges, financial incentives – whether carrot or stick – from government and investors might be required to get smaller firms and those more focused on returns to come on board.
“我认为最根本的驱动力是财务因素”， Reid Brewin Architects的Brewin说。“为满足地方法规和一些认证要求，我们一直在努力削减数据中心建设过程中的碳排放影响。事实上，鼓励企业采取可持续举措的唯一途径就是不断完善法律法规。”
“Ultimately, I believe the only driver is a financial one,” says Brewin of Reid Brewin Architects. "Consideration and effort to reduce the carbon impact of data center construction occurs within the limits of local regulations and occasional certification requirements. Anything more is for political gain or extremely limited, and the only way to encourage sustainable thinking is to make regulatory changes.”
“人们都不喜欢轻易改变，除非能清楚的看到商业回报”，JB Associates的总经理Ashley Buckland说，“说到本质，还是因为鼓励企业采取可持续举措的财政激励太少”。
“People don’t like change, and unless they can see a clear business payback for [sustainability] then they don't sign up to it,” says Ashley Buckland, managing director, JB Associates, “There are not enough incentives there.”
关于罚则，欧盟出台了很多针对碳捕捉的规范，纽约也有很多新的这方面的规范。
同时，投资者BlackRock也开始向他们投资的公司索要碳报告。
In terms of sticks, there are numerous carbon cap regulations coming out the EU, and New York City also has new carbon cap regulations on the books.
At the same time, investors BlackRock are beginning to require carbon reporting from the firms it invests in.
Syska Hennessy的主席Rob Ioanna说，“ESG（环境、社会、企业治理）正在大力推动投资，并且出台了许多法律对碳排放设定上限。这两种资金趋势给企业带来压力，加上政府的激励措施和政策压力，可能会在后期带来一些利好”。
“There's a big ESG [environmental, social, and corporate governance] push in investment money and there's a lot of laws that are coming out that are putting carbon caps on what you can emit,” says Rob Ioanna, principal at Syska Hennessy. “Those two trends of money putting pressure on companies coupled with government incentives or pushes combining together will probably do some good.”
同时，Building Transparency的Smedley指出，现在已经有越来越多的经济激励措施，比如碳密集型材料价格通常更便宜，因为它们的制造和加工成本都更低。她还建议公司应该在监管要求出台之前采取进一步行动。
Meanwhile, Building Transparency’s Smedley says the financial incentive carrot is already there, as less carbon-intensive materials are often cheaper because they have lower manufacturing and processing costs. She also advises firms to get ahead of the game and get up to speed before it becomes a regulatory requirement.
“政策法规的完善不是一两天，可能是两三年，所以大家不妨在实行强制碳减排之前，先尝试跨出一步，参与采取减碳行动，无论成果大小。”LEDG的Boucher说，"在这个行业，如果忽视了建筑工程带来的环境影响，那就与我们对可持续发展做出的承诺形成悖论“。
“This is coming as policy. It might not be tomorrow but it might be three years from now. You might as well get your feet wet and just understand what that means before it is potentially a mandatory thing.”“Every step that we can take, however incremental, is important,” says LEDG’s Boucher. “If, as an industry, we're ignoring the impacts of that the construction piece, then I think that we're really doing a disservice in our commitment towards sustainability.”
Education and transparency are key
DCD采访的专家一致认为，一家企业想要鼓励在数据中心建设过程中采取可持续举措，通过培训并和干系人建立友好关系是最行之有效的。
Everyone DCD spoke to said one of the most important things any firm in the data center industry can do to encourage more sustainable thinking in the construction phase is to educate and engage with stakeholders on the topic.
一家IDC企业的设计、工程、建设、采购、及可持续发展部门应该经常围绕环保减碳这个话题互相取经。例如，有没有更多的绿色材料选择、是不是可以使用可回收材料、是不是采购了本地生产的原材料、产品是否标准化模块化等？其实问这些问题的同时，也是自我启发。企业应该保持开放的心态，在行业内相互学习分享。
Design, engineering, construction, procurement, and sustainability teams should all be asking each other how to make these facilities greener; are there more sustainable materials options, is there scope to use recycled material, is everything being sourced locally where it makes sense, is everything as standardized and modular as it can be? Asking these questions will at least start conversations and may surface more sustainable options. At the same time, firms need to be open in order to share what they’ve learned.
“其实就像开源计算一样，超大规模的企业应该将他们先进的设计理念带入公众的视野“，LEDG的Boucher认为。这样做将带来行业转型，既提供了行业参考，也诠释了合作与公开透明的重要性，对推动环保可持续性意义重大。
“Hyperscaler type companies have brought transparency into the market around the types of designs that they use in like the open compute project,” says LEDG’s Boucher. Those have been really transformative for the industry, not only in providing reference points for design but demonstrating the importance of collaboration and transparency. Continuing to cultivate that type of transparency in our industry will be important to encourage sustainability.”
JB Associates 的Buckland说，“在数据中心这个行业，每一家企业都有责任将自己的环保减碳技术创新和实践经验分享给业内，而不是像商业机密一样不去公开”。
“Every company has a responsibility,” adds Buckland of JB Associates. “Anyone working in the data center world needs to be sending the message out how they're trying to reduce their carbon footprint. They should share those initiatives ideas, it’s not something that any company should keep as their little black book.”
尽管跟踪和量化数据中心建设过程中的碳足迹不是一件容易的事情，但企业可以尝试以下举措：
While tracking and quantifying the carbon footprint of a data center’s construction is hard to do, there are things firms can do now that will help:
Avoid landfill where possible
Use salvaged or reclaimed materials
Reduce cement usage in concrete mixes through fillers
Use synthetic gypsum for plaster and drywall
购买绿色绝缘材料，如纤维素或牛仔绝缘/天然棉纤维绝缘
Buy green insulation such as cellulose or denim insulation/natural cotton fiber insulation
Opt for rubberized asphalt made from recycled tires
Utilize recycled steel where possible
Source locally for as many materials as possible
Use modular designs and build off-site
负责协同和推动大型金融、外企、政企类客户IDC托管项目落地
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