数据统计显示，我国数据中心的总机架数将在2022年突破400万，中心总能耗也将在2020年至2021年间突破2000亿千瓦时，并在其后的年份快速增长，在2023年突破2500亿千瓦时。数据中心作为数字经济发展的重要基础设施，规模增长迅速。但数据中心也是能耗大户，大量数据吞吐和运算使得数据中心面临着前所未有的能耗和散热挑战。如何加快数据中心行业的绿色发展、降低碳排放，必将成为未来数十年国家数字化发展的重要基石。

“绿色IT”和“绿色数据中心”再次成为新闻头条。然而，在过去十年左右的时间里，它们是一组被过度使用的可持续术语之一。以至于它们的影响力可能会被削弱，甚至可能是陈词滥调了。

Green IT’ and ‘green data centers’ are back at the top of the news headlines. Yet they are amongst a group of sustainability terms that have been overused across the last decade or so. So much so that their impact has risked being watered down, perhaps even clichéd.

然而，成为负责任的数字公民的必要性并不是陈词滥调或营销噱头。这是一个严峻的现实，整个数据中心部门需要做出有意义的改进。

However, the imperative to be responsible digital citizens is not a cliché or a marketing stunt. It is a stark reality at which the entire data center sector needs to make meaningful improvements.

在一场全球新冠病毒推动下的全人类的共同抗疫努力之后，人们的注意力正转向可持续性。所以现在焦点已经回归，作为一个行业，我们如何才能使我们的努力更有影响力?

After the realignment of efforts promoted by a global pandemic, attentions are drifting back to sustainability. So now that focus has returned, how are we as an industry able to make our efforts more impactful?

数据中心行业里的负责任数字公民身份

Responsible digital citizenship in the data center industry

据估计，数据中心消耗了全球1%的电力;在欧盟27国，预计2020年至2025年期间，这一消费量将从每年40太瓦时增加到每年43太瓦时。

It is estimated that one percent of global electricity is used by data centers; in the EU27 this consumption is projected to increase from 40 to 43 TWh per year between 2020 and 2025.

到2030年，预计将产生7400万吨电子垃圾，到2025年，联网设备的数量将接近560亿部，因此不言而喻，数据中心行业在确保数字经济的可持续性方面将发挥关键作用。

An estimated 74 million tonnes of e-waste is expected to be created by 2030, and the number of connected devices is set to be nearly 56 billion by 2025, so it is self-evident that the data center industry has a critical role to play in ensuring the sustainability of the digital economy.

这些数字是如此之大，以至于任何一个组织似乎都很难产生影响。然而，每个个人和公司都必须产生积极的影响，并对如何做到这一点负责。这意味着不仅仅关注PUE。在整个生命周期中，数据中心的足迹远远超出了电力消耗。

These numbers are so vast that it seems difficult for any single organisation to make an impact. However, every individual and company must make a positive impact – and hold themselves to account in how it is done. This means more than just a focus on PUE. Throughout its life the footprint of the data center spans far beyond power consumption.

一个生命周期的承诺

A lifecycle commitment

今天的可持续发展最佳实践不是以pue为中心，而是需要关注多种组件、能源需求和材料。 

Rather than being PUE-centric, today’s sustainability best practice necessitates focusing on a multitude of components, energy requirements and materials.

想想用于建筑、计算机和电信设备、电气设备、冷却系统、能源发电机等的原材料和改造材料。冷却时需要的水，以及消毒化学品。然后我们必须研究这些设施中的设备，以及它们的生命周期。

Think of the raw materials and transformed materials used in the construction of buildings, computer and telecommunications equipment, electrical equipment, cooling systems, energy generators and so on. The water requirements in cooling, alongside the sanitizing chemicals. And then we must look at the equipment that populates the facilities, and its life cycle.

对可持续的数字公民身份的成功承诺需要纳入公司战略。但是，只有在公司的利益相关者——员工、客户、投资者和供应商——以及整个数据中心生命周期——的参与下，它们才能发挥作用并产生影响。这里我们将这一复杂的过程简化为三个阶段:

Successful commitments to sustainable digital citizenship will need to be codified in a corporate strategy. But they will come to life and create impact only with the engagement of the company's stakeholders – its employees, customers, investors and suppliers – and across the lifecycle of the data center. Here we’ve simplified this complex journey into three accessible stages:

评估和目标

Evaluation and targeting

首先要认识到PUE目标的积极指导影响，但还要额外研究数据中心施加的影响范围——能源组合的总体、设施建设和交付本身的累积足迹、水资源的使用和影响，以及更广泛的回收最佳实践。

Start by recognizing the positive guiding impact of PUE targets, but additionally looking at the range of impact areas imposed by the data center – the totality of your energy mix, the accumulated footprint of the construction and delivery of the facility itself, the use of and impact on water resources and wider recycling best practices.

了解您的环境足迹将涉及跨这些基准测试，并监测进展。虽然这不是一个详尽的清单，但你需要负责的一些关键指标可能包括:

Understanding your environmental footprint will involve benchmarking across these, and monitoring progress. Whilst not an exhaustive list, some key metrics against which you’re held to account might include:

• 电力使用效率(PUE)
• Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
• 水利用效率(WUE)
• Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE)
• 碳利用效率(CUE)
• Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE)
• 废物回收速度
• Waste recycling rate

在目标设定方面，你可以针对这些设定目标。但许多组织可能也想要一个“旗舰”的环境目标——一个可以激励员工的努力，并为企业带来声誉效益的目标。

In terms of targeting, you can set goals against each of these. But many organizations may also want a ‘flagship’ environmental goal – one that serves to galvanize the efforts of employees, and to deliver reputational benefits for the business.

全球企业做出的一项越来越有力的承诺是实现“净零碳”(在Data 4中，我们已将目标最迟设定为2030年)。

An increasingly powerful commitment being made by enterprises across the globe is to achieve “net zero carbon” (at Data 4 we have set our goal as 2030 at the latest).

由于数据中心中存在能源密集型的过程和设备，这对我们的行业来说不是一个容易的目标。因此，它提供了一个重要的例子，说明可持续发展目标背后的复杂性，以及如何使这些目标雄心勃勃，但可实现，这是提高行业声誉的关键。

By nature of the energy-intensive processes and equipment found within the data center, this is not an easy goal for our industry. It therefore provides an important example of the complexity behind sustainability targets – and how making them ambitious but attainable is key for the reputation of the sector.

真正的碳中和当然要着眼于减少能源消耗的努力和投资。这意味着优化建设过程的效率，在基础设施运行和设备报废时不影响环境。

True carbon neutrality will of course see efforts and investments focused on reducing energy consumption. This means optimizing the efficiency of the construction process, the operation of the infrastructure and good environmental behaviours for end-of-life equipment.

因此，举例来说，你必须考虑设施内混凝土的碳足迹，以及支持设施的部署，如发电机、电池和逆变器。

So, for example, you will have to consider the carbon footprint of the concrete within the facilities as much as the technologies deployed to support the facility, such as generators, batteries and inverters.

任何成功的目标设置只能在设施的完整生命周期管理中完成。

Any successful target setting can only be done within the context of full lifecycle management of your facility.

生命周期和股东管理

Lifecycle and stakeholder management

我们行业真正的可持续性依赖于循环经济的概念，看到数据中心从开始到结束的环境足迹，以及它的所有组件。

True sustainability in our industry relies on the circular economy concept, seeing the data center’s environmental footprint from inception through to end of life, along with all the components within it.

它抱着延长设备使用寿命(而不是立即更换)和尽可能回收利用材料的心态。它存在于数据中心生命周期的四个关键阶段:

It embraces a mindset of extending usable life of equipment (rather than immediate replacement) and of conscientiously recycling the materials used wherever possible. And it exists across the key four stages of the data center lifecycle:

• 设计
• Design
• 制造业
• Manufacturing
• 操作
• Operation
• 生命的终结/破坏和回收
• End of life/Destruction and recycling
• 
  

我们理解任何数据中心的生命周期都不是由它的设计者、建设者或操作者单独定义的。是所有这些参与者，以及所有在这里有股份的人。这也是与客户达成的sla以及供应商承担的义务的叙述。

We understand that the lifecycle of any data center is not defined by its designer, builder or operator alone. It’s all of these participants, along with anyone holding a stake in the facility. It is also the narrative with the SLAs agreed with customers and the obligations placed on suppliers.

为了支持这一点，我们在Data4中确定的一些关键行为和承诺，有助于与我们的整体可持续发展目标保持密切一致，包括:

In support of this, some of the key behaviors and commitments we’ve identified at Data4, which help maintain close alignment to our overall sustainability goals, include:

客户利益代言：

Customer advocacy:

支持客户了解他们自己的环境影响，让他们有一个完整的视图，所有的计算机设备及其基础设施。

Supporting customers in understanding their own environmental impact by allowing them to have a complete view of all the computer equipment and its infrastructure.

特别是向他们提供基础设施碳足迹的相关数据。在这种关系中向前迈出的一大步是为他们提供了计算他们的总环境足迹的能力，包括他们的IT生产环境。

In particular, providing them with data relating to the carbon footprint of infrastructures. A big step forward in this relationship was providing them with the ability to calculate their total environmental footprint, including their IT production environment.

员工所有权：

Employee ownership:

要授权员工做出好的决策，首先要明确目标，并提供好的见解。这是关于帮助他们在每个行动和决定中明确环境问题。

Empowerment of employees to make good decisions starts with clarity of purpose and the provision of good insights. It’s about helping make clear the environmental issues in each of their actions and decisions.

这可能需要结合培训、对现有最佳实践的修正，以及领导层更积极地参与可持续发展倡议。

This may require a combination of training, amendments to existing best practise, and more vocal participant in sustainability initiatives by leadership.

行业合作：

Industry partnership:

“没有一个数据中心是孤岛。”通过与你的生态系统中的其他参与者建立伙伴关系，你可以创造一种乘数效应，允许一切事物共享数据和策略，并以一种具有商业优势的方式加强积极的行为。

“No data center is an island.” By forming partnerships with other participants in your ecosystem, you can create a multiplier effect allowing everything to share data and strategy, and to reinforce positive behaviours in a way that also becomes commercially advantageous.

今天，我们可以采取许多行动来改善环境足迹，并为循环经济做出更积极的贡献。然而，上述活动是一个很好的切入点，开始探索全方位的更可持续的创新。

There will be many actions that can be taken to improve the environmental footprint today and make a more positive contribution to the circular economy. However the above activities are an excellent point to begin exploring a full range of more sustainable innovations.

创新

Innovation

在Data 4，我们的环保承诺之所以成为可能，完全是因为我们的好奇心。我们总是在问“我们可以采用什么新的创新?”幸运的是，在可持续发展领域，答案是“很多”。这些好处可以在数据中心的整个生命周期中看到。

At Data4, our environmental commitments have only been possible because of our curiosity. We are always asking “what new innovations can we adopt?” Fortunately in the field of sustainability, the answer is “a lot.” And these benefits can be seen throughout the lifecycle of the data center.

我们已经讨论了将设计和建造的影响纳入任何目标以达到碳中和的重要性。因此，在我们自己的设施中，我们愿意利用低碳混凝土和碳捕获能力的好处。然后是电池技术的发展，它允许一种更环保的方式来计划分层冗余。

We have discussed the importance of including the impact of the design and build within any target to become carbon neutral. So in our own facilities we are willing to capitalize on the benefits of low carbon concrete and carbon capture capabilities. Then there is the evolution in battery technologies which allows for a more environmentally friendly way to plan for tiered redundancy.

在操作像数据中心这样复杂的设施时，我们都需要一只援手来最大化我们的积极环境行为。我们最近进行了一些人工智能解决方案的概念验证，旨在收集、分析和提供关于我们冷却系统的见解。

In the operation of a facility as complex as a data center, we all need a helping hand to maximize our positive environmental behaviors. We have recently conducted a number of proofs of concept for artificial intelligence solutions aimed at collecting, analyzing and delivering insights on our cooling systems.

这些信息使得检测异常操作以防止故障(预测性维护)或检查操作参数以提高性能，同时降低能耗成为可能。除了免费冷却等方法，这可以深刻地改变你的碳足迹向正确的方向发展。

This information makes it possible to detect abnormal operations to prevent a breakdown (predictive maintenance) or to review the operating parameters to improve performance while reducing energy consumption. Alongside methodologies such as free cooling, this can profoundly shift your carbon footprint in the right direction.

每个组织都需要确定自己的前进道路。利益相关者、地理位置和技术的混合意味着没有两家企业是相同的。然而，我们相信，通过全面的评估和现实的目标设置，您可以将利益相关者聚集在一起，提供一个更可持续的数据中心——贯穿其生命周期，并与我们的整个生态系统携手合作。

Every organization will need to determine its own path forward. The mix of stakeholders, geographies and technologies mean no two businesses are the same. However, we believe that by being comprehensive in your evaluation and realistic in your target setting, you can bring your stakeholders together to deliver a more sustainable data center – throughout its lifecycle and hand in hand with our whole ecosystem.

深 知 社

翻译：

林宇

世纪互联专家

DKV（DeepKnowledge Volunteer）计划创始成员