Datacentre operator achieves Carbon Trust Standard

This week European datacentre operator Telecity became the 300th organisation to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard (CTS). Businessgreen asked Telecity’s chief operating officer Rob Coupland to talk through the thinking behind it.

Businessgreen: Why did Telecity want to achieve the CTS?

Rob Coupland: We provide 23 high-quality datacentre environments around Europe into which our customers put their IT equipment. There is clearly a fundamental shift to web-based business and this is driving significant growth for us. But there is also the question of how we square that with the need to be more energy efficient. We spent around £25 million on energy in 2009.

So about two years ago we set up an energy management programme to look at energy use throughout the business, really to ensure that as much of the energy we use as possible goes towards processing data rather than cooling servers.

While it’s easy to look to the future and how new facilities can be designed to achieve this, we wanted to make sure that we optimised what we already have. Some of the equipment we have is 10 years old.

Businessgreen: Did you consider other carbon management certification before the CTS?

Rob Coupland: Yes, in 2008 we began to apply to our facilities the European Code of Conduct for Datacentre Operators, a voluntary best-practice methodology. We then looked at how that work linked with ISO14001 to certify the methodology we had put in place. Finally we worked with the Carbon Trust to certify the 11 to 12 per cent year-on-year carbon efficiency we’d achieved and to establish carbon reduction as a fundamental part of the business.

Businessgreen: Was the primary motive to reduce carbon or to save money?

Rob Coupland: Both. This is one of those happy occasions when the agenda comes together. From an economic standpoint, clearly the more web-based business drives demand for our services, so our energy consumption increases, and driving energy efficiency makes us more competitive for our customers. But we are also a FTSE250 company with stakeholders and shareholders who look to our CSR record when they make investment and buying decisions.

So achieving the Carbon Trust Standard was the right thing to do ethically, economically, and in terms of brand positioning.

Businessgreen: What lessons did you learn from achieving the CTS?

Rob Coupland: It gave us a good set of data to see where we were achieving good energy efficiency and where we weren’t doing so well. It made us ask why there were these differences. It made us seek out local best practice that hadn’t been shared with the whole group. It gave us a ground-up view of how to improve energy efficiency and many of the ideas weren’t as capital-intensive as we expected.

For example, because most of the inefficiencies in our operations come from excess heat, it made us look at very simple things such as getting the vented floor tiles in the right places and using blanking plates in the racks between servers.

We spent £250,000 on blanking panels. These stop heat transferring up the server rack. Without them, the air at the top of the rack can be 15 to 20 degrees higher than with panels. They remove hotspots and improve the efficiency of cooling distribution.

We also learned to make more use of free cooling – colder ambient air from outside during winter months.

The equipment comes from the customers, so engagement with the customers is key to the process, helping them to understand that its not about having the coldest datacentre possible, but an environment where the temperature is optimised for their equipment.

Businessgreen: Have you ever turned away a customer because the environmental performance of their equipment couldn’t be accommodated? Would you do so in the future?

Rob Coupland: We don’t set standards for the equipment but provide a clear definition of the environment we operate in. It’s not for us to set policy but to advise customers and help them get the most from our services.

Businessgreen: Have you managed to decouple business growth from energy consumption?

Rob Coupland: Growth in our business is driven by taking in more equipment to our datacentres which means an increase in energy consumption. But by increasing the efficiency of our datacentres we slow the overall growth of consumption and the Carbon Trust Standard reflects that by taking into account business growth.

Businessgreen: If your efficiency is a competitive tool, why are you sharing this achievement?

Rob Coupland: As an industry, IT has perhaps been guilty of burying its head in the sand and thinking that carbon regulation will only apply to heavy industry. But regulation is not going to pass us by. By adopting voluntary standards, like the Carbon Trust Standard, and working in a transparent way, we can set the agenda. If we don’t do this as an industry, we risk having a harsher regulatory regime enforced on us.