The iMasons Climate Accord‘s governing body, comprising digital infrastructure giants such as Amazon Web Services, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and energy management firm Schneider Electric, is advocating for increased transparency in the sector. They are requesting data center suppliers to disclose the lifecycle emissions of their products and infrastructure. This initiative is part of a broader effort to accelerate the decarbonization of the industry.
The Importance of EPDs
The governing body emphasizes that a significant portion of emissions from data centers or hyperscalers (large-scale data centers with vast computing resources) are scope 3 emissions. Therefore, EPDs are a “critical tool” for measuring the emissions of digital infrastructure.
Addressing Scope 3 Emissions
The iMasons Climate Accord’s governing body, which also includes data center services firm Digital Reality and digital infrastructure nonprofit Infrastructure Masons, believes that the widespread adoption of EPDs by the data center supply chain will enable facility operators to effectively calculate their scope 3 emissions’ impact and select products to mitigate it.
Scope 3 emissions can account for between 38-69% of a data center’s total carbon footprint, according to Schneider Electric. The governing body’s open letter states that data center companies cannot address their embodied emissions (those from manufacturing, transporting, and constructing the digital infrastructure) until they can estimate and establish a baseline measurement of these carbon emissions.
The Push for Lower Carbon Footprint
The call for EPDs comes as the digital infrastructure sector is increasingly seeking to reduce data centers’ carbon footprint. Anna Timme, head of sustainability for secure power and data centers at Schneider Electric, stated that promoting industry-wide adoption of digital infrastructure nutrition labels is a “critical step in enabling carbon-informed decision making.”
The governing body notes that there are currently not enough vendors producing EPDs for their products, making it challenging for the industry to purchase lower-carbon materials and reflect “vendor emissions reductions” when reporting to key stakeholders.
The Future of Digital Infrastructure
The governing body asserts that members of the climate coalition are already using EPDs to track embodied emissions in data centers. However, they need vendors to publish more of them for the materials and equipment used to construct and operate data centers. The open letter calls for suppliers to create verified EPDs that are readily available and disseminated in common third-party databases.
The iMasons Climate Accord, created by Infrastructure Masons in 2022, has over 250 members representing data centers, networks, cloud computing energy, and cybersecurity companies.
