Telecity achieves Carbon Trust Standard

Datacentre operator Telecity has become the 300th company to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard (CTS). It is the first business of its kind to be awarded the CTS, which was established two years ago.

The CTS certifies that organisations have implemented a regime to measure, manage and reduce emissions over time. For an organisation the size of Telecity, which operates 23 datacentres across Europe, that meant presenting three years of emission data as well as showing it has the management programmes in place to manage and reduce GHG Protocol Scope 1 and 2 emissions by at least 2.5 per cent year on year relative to growth.

Henry Garthwaite of the CTS said: “To achieve the standard involved a highly rigorous process because we are very aware of the issue of greenwash.”

Although the CTS’s rules are the same for every organisation that wants to be certified, the actions they have to undertake to achieve the standard differ for each. At Telecity, for example, the main cause of emissions is electricity consumption, so this was the main focus of its efforts.

Rob Coupland, Telecity chief operating officer, said: “Most of the inefficiencies in our operations come from excess heat, so [achieving the standard] 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 – 20C higher than with panels. They remove hotspots and improve the efficiency of cooling distribution.”

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

“Engagement with the customers is key to the process, helping them to understand that it’s not about having the coldest datacentre possible, but an environment where the temperature is optimised for their equipment,” added Coupland.

Carbon emissions from the IT industry are on a par with the aviation industry, accounting for 2 to 3 per cent of anthropogenic emissions worldwide, according to industry soothsayers at Gartner.

The total carbon footprint of businesses and public sector bodies certified by the CTS is now nearly 32 million tCO2e. The 300 CTS achievers have so far together cut their emissions by 2.1m tCO2e representing an average reduction of 7 per cent per organisation. These reductions have saved them £72 million in energy and fuel costs.