Does Your Company Use Data? Green Your Data Center Services With New Contract Guide!
Today, data centers use at least 1% of the world’s electricity1 and some estimates put this number as high as 2%. As businesses continue to grow and take their operations online, their digital appetite will increase. The bad news? All this data live in data centers or on the cloud, using tons of electricity, which creates greenhouse gas emissions. The good news? Customers of colocation data center facilities and outsourced cloud infrastructure services have a tremendous opportunity to accelerate decarbonization in the data center industry, as well as reduce their own emissions, by leveraging their collective demand to consistently ask for sustainable solutions. Many customers and providers of data services are already addressing this issue by creating resources and identifying solutions that will enable the data center industry to grow sustainably.
One such resource is CEBA’s new Sample Contract Language for Data Center Customers Primer, developed in collaboration with CEBA members participating in the Future of Internet Power (FoIP) initiative. This resource provides sample language that customers can use in contracts for data services to ensure that their providers are practicing sustainable energy management and taking real, tangible action towards decarbonization. Ensuring sustainable energy management by data services providers will in turn help customers manage and reduce the emissions associated with their data services contracts. The contract language provided in this resource addresses issues of efficiency, clean electricity procurement, electricity and environmental data transparency, and public disclosure.
By leveraging the contract language in this resource, customers can procure data services that will help them meet their clean energy, efficiency, data disclosure, and other sustainability goals. Additionally, companies have an opportunity to drive progress beyond their individual goals. By consistently and collectively asking for sustainable energy solutions in data centers, customers can use their buying power for good. They can send a strong demand signal to providers, accelerate sustainable solutions in data centers, and help advance the decarbonization of the industry.
CEBA members can view and download the Sample Contract Language for Data Center Customers Primer on CEBA InterConnect. Not a member? Learn more about CEBA membership options.
Additional resources to help data center customers and service providers advance clean energy are available through CEBA’s Future of Internet Power program. Email supplychain@cebuyers.org for more information.
1IEA Report “Data Centres and Data Transmission Networks,” 2021