Logistics and supply chain management: Do data centers really improve sustainability?

The term Industry 4.0 refers to a new model of organization and control of the value chain throughout the product life cycle and throughout manufacturing systems supported and made possible by information technologies.

 

From the point of view of the circular economy, digitalization has developed another series of very innovative tools focused on the reduced environmental impactData management and the application of digital solutions, such as digital platforms, smart devices, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and blockchain, are already enabling technologies for moving toward a circular economy. 

 

This Fourth Industrial Revolution, characterized by the increased digital connectivity between people, products and systems, and driven by the Internet and mobile technology, has been a true catalyst for unlocking a wealth of opportunities.

 

Companies and users seeking to adapt to the future need to increase digitalization and manage their carbon footprint, first by improving data capture, internal communication, reporting, analysis, and transparency through the use of cloud services and big data. All of these improvements will undoubtedly prepare them for a competitive advantage.

 

In the case of the digital transformation in transport, the change has been preceded by an evolution in the digitalization of its procedures 

 

Ultimately, the knowledge-based society needs to generate, store, distribute and use this data, and to do so, data processing centers manage the information contained in millions of technological devices. More than 22.000 billion devices are connected to the Internet according to the HelpNetSecurity.

 

Environmental impact of CDPs

 

A data center (DPC) is the physical location where the computing resources required by an organization or service provider are concentrated. It is also known as a "data center."Internet Data Center» (IDC) in English or data center in Spain. The data center is constantly changing. 

 

The digital sector is responsible for a 3.8% of global emissions of greenhouse gases. One of the challenges facing the technology sector is environmental. The digital world, although seemingly intangible, is based on an entire network of servers, network infrastructures, and data centers, making it responsible for global greenhouse gas emissions.

 

The consumption of electronic products and digital services has an environmental cost, as shown by studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This is also warned by DATA4 based on data from GeSI SMARTer 2030And the volume of users, data, and therefore energy needs continues to grow.

 

According to the magazine National Geographic “Every minute, 38 million WhatsApp messages are sent worldwide, 266.000 hours of Netflix are watched, 4,3 million YouTube videos are viewed, and 3,7 million Google searches are performed, according to data from analytics firm Cumulus Media published in Visual Capitalist. If the Internet were a country, it would be the sixth most polluting in the world.This is confirmed by the data from the Greenpeace organization in its report Click Clean"

 

The main cause of the environmental footprint of the CDP It's the energy needed to run your infrastructure. Data centers, cell phone towers, and the devices needed to access the internet all require large amounts of electricity. 

 

To compensate for power outages, large batteries, like those used in cars, are stored in data centers. Sometimes, even enormous diesel generators are used. The internet continues to grow, autonomous cars are on the horizon, and portable devices and connected homes are on the rise. The cloud is expanding, and there will be ever more data to process and store. To date, There are nine million data centers worldwideAnd those on US soil alone use 10% of the nation's energy.

 

Jon Koomey, a professor at Stanford University, is one of the few who has dedicated himself to calculating this impact and states that Internet use, considering all the elements that make it work, accounts for 8-10% of our energy consumption. Data centers represent 1,5%. For Jon Koomey, an expert on the environmental impact of technology, the most important elements to measure are what he calls "the big three":

 

1. El TEAM that we use to access the Internet (computers, tablets, laptops, routers).

2. The data centers (which store and host the web pages).

3. access networks (the wiring and antennas that carry the data).

 

What impact does the network have?

 

According to Gartner consultancy, the carbon footprint of the Internet surpassed that of the aviation industry in 2007, and came to represent 2% of international emissions. Most recent studies of the CEET in Australia They concluded in 2013 that the telecommunications industry as a whole produces 830 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, a figure they estimate will double by 2020.

 

Each search we perform on the Internet releases 0.2 grams of CO2 into the environment, which, according to the Google itself, meaning that the greenhouse effect caused by a thousand searches would be equivalent to driving a car for one kilometer.

 

This enormous ecological footprint continues to grow, making data centers one of the industries that will most influence environmental conditions in the future, generating additional costs for companies due to the pollution they generate.

 

This has led to the emergence of a trend towards ecology, which is leading the main operators and leading companies in the placement sector towards new greener construction and operation policies for its facilitiesAnd, to achieve maximum operating efficiency over the next decade, generating a lower environmental impact while reducing operating costs, experts point to a series of key technologies:

 

• Liquid refrigeration: One of the systems that provides the most energy savings in a data center is liquid cooling of servers and other electronic equipment.

• AI-powered infrastructure management: One of the best ways to optimize the use of all resources in a data center is to employ automated infrastructure management systems, and the advent of AI has made it possible to reach new heights in this field.

• Increased server usageThe best solution is to use automated infrastructure management systems, improving monitoring and enabling an AI-based core.

• Quantum computing: Not only will the computing power of computers increase exponentially, but energy efficiency will also take a qualitative leap, potentially reaching 20 orders of magnitude compared to current computing equipment.

• Predominance of hyperscale operatorsThe growth of the hyperscale market will also have a decisive impact on overall energy savings in the data center sector.

 

Development of the Green Data Center

 

It stands for a green data center. A green data center is an enterprise-class computing facility that is fully built, managed, and operated with the principles of green computingIt provides the same features and capabilities as a typical data center, but uses less energy and space, and its design and operation are environmentally friendly. A green data center is designed to have a minimal impact on the natural environment.

 

The United States government was one of the first to raise awareness about this issue. The United States Data Center Energy Usage, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, calculates data center energy consumption based on parameters like PUE. And they assess data center efficiency based on PUE indicators. The lower this indicator, the more efficient and sustainable the data center. We can talk about an efficient data center with a PUE of 1.6. Large companies like Google They have data centers with a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of 1.12 and an efficiency ratio of 83%.

 

Building and operating a green data center includes advanced technologies and strategies. Here are some examples:

• Minimizing building footprints

• The use of low-emission building materials, carpets and paints

• Paisajism is sustainable

• Recycling waste

• Installing catalytic converters on backup generators

• The use of alternative energy technologies such as photovoltaics, heat pumps and evaporative cooling

• The use of hybrid or electric vehicles

 

Fernando Gómez Hermoso,

Euro-Funding Project Manager