Earth Day 2022

April 22, 2022
10:00

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day presents us with the opportunity to reflect on the collective progress we have made over the last year towards the ambitious climate targets we are setting out to achieve. From record wind and solar installations, a growing power purchase market, scalable carbon capture facilities, and COP26, the last year has been inspiring.

However, it is also a sobering reminder that there is still plenty to do. The latest IPCC report warns that, without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C is beyond reach.

The data centre industry is spearheading the drive to greater energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions across value chains, and enabling access to the large data sets needed to enact real change.

Digital Infra Network’s mission has always been to be a conduit for sharing knowledge, giving a voice to those who are leading the charge towards net-zero and highlighting the revolutionary technology that will help us on the way.

I hope that this comes across in this selection of the best talks we have hosted over the last year. After all, every day is Earth Day at the Digital Infra Network.

Sessions from this talk

As the ‘Green’ engine room of the European power sector, the Nordics is the obvious choice for companies looking to reduce and ideally eliminate the carbon impact on energy consumption for data centers. On top of the renewable surplus and low cost, other factors to location are impacting the purchase and consumption of renewable energy. This talk will examine some of the market dynamics and future trends which may play a part in this choice, as well as ways in which organisations will need to develop additional solutions and benefits for customers and broader society to bring truly sustainable solutions.
Speaker(s)
Addressing the challenges of precise carbon accounting has never been more important but if an organisation wants to understand their environmental impact, first they have to be able to accurately measure it. In this session nZero CEO, Adam Kramer, discusses with Digital Infra Network’s Dan Scarbrough how the Ledger solution measures an organisation’s scope emissions using real-time data, offering significant OPEX savings whilst empowering businesses with the ability to effectively reduce their carbon footprint and achieve their sustainability goals.
Speaker(s)
Gary Cudmore, Black & Veatch’s global director for data centers, discusses nuclear technology, the potential for fusion energy and the progress being made to provide a global solution for a safe, low-carbon, sustainable energy source. He is joined by Mark Gake, Global Nuclear Technology Manager, to talk about the state of Small Modular Reactors and benefits. Together, they show how this energy source could solve so many challenges for future energy demand and yes – data centers are the perfect base load!
Speaker(s)
John Booth, Managing Director of Carbon3IT presents a frank assessment of the challenges facing the Data Center sector as its relentless expansion continues. Sustainable development is defined as ‘Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ – what then, are the most pressing challenges facing the industry and which roadmaps and frameworks are in place that will facilitate and enable adoption of vital sustainability practices as we transition, globally, towards a Net-Zero future?
Speaker(s)
According to the most recent IEA statistics, data networks are accountable for one per cent of the entire globe’s electricity consumption. As a prime consumer of electricity in this sector, data centre operators have come under fire for their perceived contribution to global emissions. However, this viewpoint does not consider either the numerous advances in data centre infrastructure efficiency which have already been delivered, or the fact that data centres are one of the front runners in terms of investment in green energy generation and storage. This presentation will cover the importance of self-regulation and the Carbon Pact in achieving the goal of net-zero data centres by 2030.
Speaker(s)
As digital transformation of business operations and our personal lives accelerates, Data Center capacity needs to keep up. At the same time pressure is mounting to grow capacity in an environmentally responsible way. Data Center operators must mobilize plans that include energy optimization, reductions of waste, restrictions on water usage and minimized greenhouse gas emissions. A holistic plan will cover the lifecycle from Data Center design, construction and operation. We will discuss how companies can respond to the drivers of sustainability with a holistic environmental Data Center sustainability strategy including metrics to use, ways to measure, planning and designing software, sustainable hardware solutions and the portfolio of sustainability services available.
Speaker(s)

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