Sustainable Site Selection

Transcription

RESEARCH REPORT
Sustainable Site Selection:
The Convergence of Data Center Site
Selection and Sustainability
ADVISORY COUNCIL WORKING GROUP CO-CHAIRS AND EDITORS:
James W. Grice, Lathrop & Gage, LLP, Lead Editor
Dean Nelson, eBay, Editor
Eddie Schutter, AT&T, Editor
WORKING COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND CONTRIBUTORS:1
Marc Banks, Deutsche Bank
Gary Demasi, Google Inc.
Keith Dines, Digital Realty Trust
David Hampton, Verizon
Sean James, Microsoft
Michail Kefalakis, Hewlett-Packard
Ken Kristan, Emerson Network Power
Mike Lewis, eBay
Philip Meyers, Morgan Stanley
Tom Misaki, NRI
Christina Page, Yahoo
Dan Spadaro, Goldman Sachs
RESEARCH REPORT Sustainable Site Selection
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Executive Summary
The process of data center site selection is being adapted to face the realities of new
economic megaforces in areas of policy, design and resources, all of which have
critical impact to the long-term sustainability of data center facilities. Site selection is
evolving into a complex roadmap of new risks - both current and future - that must be
analyzed to manage the collision course of data center operations and sustainability.
According to Eddie Schutter, Lead Principal Technical Architect for Data Centers at
AT&T, in the case of site selection, “When organizations choose to build a data
center, they make long term decisions whose affects and risks can last for ten to
twenty years. Where you choose your site may dictate which risk factor you collide
with first.” This Research Report seeks to assess the state of the industry as it
approaches this collision point, identify the basis for the potential collision, and
propose tools that may assist in helping to avoid it.
The state of the industry perspective on the sustainability and site selection is
summarized below.
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Sustainability is a factor in site selection and is mostly viewed in the
context of the total business case scenario and total cost of ownership
versus an issue of environmental stewardship. With that said, most
expect environmental sustainability issues to grow in importance in the
near future.
Many organizations have self-imposed goals for environmental
sustainability to guide future decisions that include goals for
power/carbon and in some cases, water.
Realizing the cost and environmental benefits attainable by the use of
aggressive environmental sustainability concepts in the design and
operation of data centers requires a greater focus on TCO and clear
delineation of the cost benefits of leading edge data center cooling and
operation strategies.
Tax framework and tax incentive programs are a very important
component of site selection and most organizations give great weight to
targeted incentive programs that are available to defray the costs of
development, including sustainability improvements at the site.
Incentives to offset the costs of sustainability improvements are
underutilized and there is a misperception of risk associated with long
term incentive program availability.
Carbon intensity and water utilization and availability are the most
prominent among the list of environmental sustainability issues. Very
few organizations are looking to develop onsite renewable energy
facilities, and the effort of those seeking to do so are viewed by most to
be either i) based on unique business models/ customer requirements
or ii) motivated by public relations.
As organizations weigh their options for data center site selection, there is a need to
both educate and empower owner organizations through evaluation tools and data
models that transition sustainability from emotional and rhetorical decisions to
objective and rational decisions.
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Sustainable Site Selection:
The Convergence of Data Center Site Selection and Sustainability
I.
Introduction – A Focus on Sustainability and Site Selection
5
II.
Sustainable Sites Defined
6
III.
21st Century Business Models & Sustainability
8
IV.
Business Model Risk – A Question of Decision-Making Control
11
V.
Tools for Managing the Potential Impact of the “Collision”
13
VI.
Conclusion
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VII.
References -- Bibliography
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VIII.
About The Green Grid
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Appendix A – Initial Sustainability Survey Results (Jan 2013)
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©2013 The Green Grid. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced, photocopied,
transmitted, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without the written permission of the copyright owner.
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Introduction – A Focus on Sustainability
and Site Selection
Data centers have become the backbone that supports nearly every transaction,
communication, and information inquiry of everyday life. It has been estimated 2 that
there are nearly 44 million servers running worldwide with double digit growth
expected annually in the foreseeable future. With the increasing role data centers
play in commerce and society, data center professionals must strive to evaluate an
increasing number of factors that have an evolving effect on cost and reliability, and
therefore the overall sustainability of data center installations.
Recent commentators have identified ten “sustainability megaforces” 3 that will
impact businesses over the next 20 years. These include Population Growth, Growth
of the Middle Class, Climate Change, Energy and Fuel, Material Resource Scarcity,
and Water Scarcity, among others. Businesses4 report that these megaforces are
causing a shift from resource management to resource planning, and are evolving
from a historic strategy of reactionary management to proactive sustainability
planning in a new economic paradigm.
The process of data center site selection is also being adapted to face the new
realities of these megaforces. The key site factors being evaluated today are
expanded from those of ten years ago. Site selection is evolving into a complex
roadmap of new and future risks that must be analyzed to manage the collision
course of data center operations and sustainability. As stated by Don Beaty, of DLB
Associates, “we must be able to future-proof our facilities to create a balance of
agility and reliability.”
In order to better understand the direction of the data center industry in the face of
these mega-forces, The Green Grid commissioned a working group to look at the
changing practices of sustainable site selection. The working group’s process for
gathering information included one-on-one interviews with members of the working
group and other industry contributors. In addition, input was sought from others in
the industry through a web survey which was sent to industry stakeholders.5
The working group Interviews, completed by Committee Co-Chair, Jim Grice,
yielded a recurring set of perspectives summarized below.
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Sustainability is a factor in site selection and is mostly viewed in the context
of the total cost of ownership and return on invested capital versus an issue
of environmental stewardship. With that said, most expect environmental
sustainability issues to grow in importance as the data center industry
continues to mature. 
Many organizations have self-imposed goals for environmental sustainability
to guide future decisions that include goals for power/carbon reduction and
in some cases, for water. 
Cost justification was identified by many interviewees as the main
impediment to wide spread adoption of aggressive environmental
sustainability measures in the United States. Some respondents also
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identified that there are complex regulatory issues which impact access to
renewable energy, and these regulatory challenges cannot be understated.
Tax framework and tax incentive programs are very important components of
site selection and most organizations give great weight to targeted incentive
programs that are available to defray the costs of development, including
sustainability improvements at the site. Incentives to offset the costs of
sustainability improvements are underutilized and there is a misperception
of risk associated with long-term incentive program availability.
Carbon intensity and water utilization are the most prominent among the list
of environmental sustainability issues. Very few organizations are pursuing
onsite renewable energy facilities. Among those that are, the drivers
typically include one or more of the following: i) addressing the lack of
instate renewable energy; ii) reacting to a unique business model/customer
requirement; iii) establishing a power hedge against the potential risk of
utility price increases in states with carbon intensive generation; iv)
implementing disruptive innovation; or v) reacting to public relation
concerns. Most believe water utilization concerns can be mitigated through
facility design. 
Interestingly, the following did not resonate with most of the interviewees as
being prominent issues in current site selection practices. However,
individual companies found the following topics demonstrably important,
after satisfying the basic technical site factors that cause a site search to be
narrowed: 
 Adaptive reuse
 Redevelopment and Brownfields
 Net zero development opportunities
 Locations in rural areas or diminished market areas
 Community impact, positive or negative
This Research Report is not intended to prescribe a method for site selection or to
define the site selection goals for any particular organization, rather it is intended to
raise awareness for sustainable site selection in the data center industry, assist with
understanding the interplay between sustainability factors and user objectives, and
propose tools that would be helpful when users are faced with sustainable site
selection decisions.
Sustainable Sites Defined
A key result of the working group process was to develop a definition of a sustainable
site. The consensus definition as developed through the Interviews and further
endorsed by the Survey, is as follows:
Comprehensive Business Environment that Supports a Reliable and
Affordable Operation Platform over the Life Cycle of the Project
Commitment (i.e., Facility) and Achieves a Balance between:
(1) The Resources Consumed
(2) The Products and Revenue Produced by the Project
Commitment
(3) The Environmental Goals for the Organization
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In essence, the consensus definition seeks to achieve a business-oriented balance of
the inputs and outputs guided by the business model and program restraints of the
user, with emphasis on the organization’s environmental goals. This definition
reflects concerns about data center sustainability driven by the same megaforces
driving sustainability decisions in other industries.
The sustainable site definition suggests that it is critical for an organization to
specifically define, understand and appreciate its business plan and operational
model, which should include environmental goals. With that level of understanding,
an organization can create a Project Commitment necessary to implement that plan
consistent with the Life Cycle needed. In this way, the business model is inextricably
related to the data center built to serve it. Distinctions in the business model will
drive sustainability decisions to achieve Balance as the definition suggests.
As reflected in the sustainable site definition, 21 st Century business models should
include a special component for Environmental Goals. Each organization should
have its own goals as they relate to individual projects and environmental issues.
This is where adequate planning is a must. Organizations that strive only to meet
current minimum environmental and regulatory requirements, are assuming a level
of risk associated with potential disruptive changes in the future.
In some circumstances, environmental goals might even drive the business
model. For example, Dean Nelson, VP of Global Foundation Services for eBay
confirmed in an interview with GreenBiz.com, that eBay strives to significantly reduce
its carbon footprint by investing in cleaner energy sources for the data centers that
serve its popular website. The goal is to reduce the amount of carbon emitted for
each web transaction its customers initiate. In this way, eBay has taken
an unprecedented step to implement fuel cells as the primary, on-site power source
for one of its core data centers. Their Digital Service Efficiency metric
provided holistic visibility into four dependent variables - performance, cost,
environmental impact and revenue - enabling them to optimize site,
provider, technology and operational choices such as fuel cells. If they did not have
the link between their customer’s infrastructure consumption (website transactional
demand) and the corresponding power required to serve those transactions, the
carbon emitted for each transaction, the overall cost per transaction, and the
revenue generated for each of these transactions, the business may not have
supported this strategy.
Once the business model, inclusive of the environmental goals, is defined, Balance
can be pursued. Resources Consumed and Products and Revenue Produced by the
Project Commitment are the inputs and outputs of that equation. The balance struck
between these input elements and the desired outputs will vary by organization and
is in a large part dependent on the business model. John Tuccillo, President and
Chairman of the Board of The Green Grid explained this role, “No two data centers
are exactly alike, and The Green Grid doesn’t want to put itself in a position of saying
“Thou shall determine productivity this way.” What the best in the industry can do is
illustrate ways to quantify productive output from your IT and facilities infrastructure,
which you can interpret to match with your particular business model for the same
reasons you created a data center in the first place.” 6
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21st Century Business Models &
Sustainability
SUSTAINABILITY AS A NECESSARY COMPONENT OF STRATEGIC
BUSINESS PLANNING
The 20th Century was well recognized for practices of engineered procurement to
obtain the lowest cost goods and services that meet the technical and business
financial targets. That approach is seeing a transition in many business sectors,
including the Federal Government, to include sustainability issues and topics. The
costs and savings of sustainability practices are likely to become more tangible,
whether as an objective direct financial effect, or a subjective cost of public,7 media,8
or shareholder9 perception. In the not-so-distant future, sustainability considerations
may no longer be optional.
This trend is evident from the results of a survey of 4,000 managers done by MIT
Sloan Management Review10 in 2011. The survey found that a vast majority of
companies are finding sustainability planning to be a necessary competitive strategic
initiative, driven primarily by public perception. The MIT survey yielded findings that
70% of companies responding have placed sustainability permanently on their
management agendas, and nearly one third of respondents say that their
sustainability activities are contributing to their profitability.
Sustainable business practices are starting to be embraced by private industry in
general.11 One example of this is the work of Wal-Mart and other members of the
Sustainability Consortium.12 This initiative started in 2009 and creates a private
mandate for vendors to implement sustainable best practices and reporting as a
consideration of continued vendor affiliation with Wal-Mart.
On the heels of the Sustainability Consortium,13 the United States Government
sought to take a progressive approach to sustainability as well. This initiative took
form in Executive Order 13514, which imposes environmental best practices and
reporting requirements on those wishing to contract with the Federal Government. 14
The GSA and other federal agencies are implementing comprehensive sustainability
planning for site development and vendor management with their GSA Sustainable
Development Guide, which seeks to raise the bar. “ It sets the stage for a new, higher
level of awareness and intensity in the Government's taking responsibility for its own
actions and its role as leader, setting the right example for all of society and using its
purchasing power to further sustainability." Ray C. Anderson, Interface.15
Most data center industry participants agree that the focus on sustainability topics,
such as virtualization, free cooling, and IT resource planning are good ideas that
make environmental and financial sense.16 Further, virtualization and other resource
and energy efficiency initiatives are underway in nearly every data center group.
Microsoft published an approach that may be found in “Microsoft’s Top 10 Business
Practices for Environmentally Sustainable Data Centers.”17 The introduction
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describes the potential collision. “Microsoft recognizes the tough challenges that
data center managers, industry operators, and IT businesses face today as they
struggle to support their businesses in the face of budget cuts and uncertainty about
the future. It’s natural that environmental sustainability is taking a back seat in
many companies at this time. But the fact is, being “lean and green” is good for both
the business and the environment, and organizations that focus their attentions
accordingly will see clear benefits.”
LEED is another aspect of sustainability that plays a prominent role. LEED is
developing additional standards for data centers.18 Most notably, it is contemplated
that the new LEED criteria will allow data centers to receive credit for IT load
reductions as well as improvements in facility energy efficiency. 19 Industry decisionmakers have expressed both their reliance on LEED certifications in achieving
sustainability goals for them and their clients, and their eagerness for the new
criteria being developed by USGBC anticipated to provide an even better fit with data
center construction and development.”
HOLISTIC SUSTAINABILITY – NOT JUST ENVIRONMENTAL
STEWARDSHIP
The intersection of budgets and operations with environmental requirements is
viewed as the most likely point of collision. That said, there is growing support for a
more holistic view of sustainability that will be needed to address the new challenges
of growing public and policy scrutiny of a data-driven economy, including:
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Policy Risk. The sources of policy and regulation changes for data center
operations may be from national or state government20 or internal
corporate and shareholder initiatives. Accordingly, the threat of regulatory
requirements is perceived to be a major decision driver on energy usage,
resource availability, or sustainability. Many entities in the data center sector
are seeking to achieve the intermediate goal of carbon neutrality and
decreased carbon intensity. The measuring stick for advancement toward
that goal comprises three factors: carbon tons/kwh, PUE, and server
utilization. This trend is validated by a majority of the working committee
members and the Survey, with 58% of the respondents to the Survey
indicating that their organization had an institutional goal related to carbon,
and 40% indicating that the threat of regulatory changes for carbon would
be a decision driver. Recent government initiatives in both China and US
point to growing sentiment among policy makers to tax carbon emission.21
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Design Risk. History has shown that multiple step-change technology
advances will likely occur within a 15 – 20 year data center program life.
Based on experience over the past two decades, there will be effects of
disruptive breakthroughs that will be forthcoming in efficiency, data
operations, and/or energy conversion. The next breakthrough may allow for
the advances in operations (such as high temp servers, interlinked IT and
facilities control systems, and right sizing application to data center tiers),22
advances in energy efficiency (such as virtualization, lower power arm
processors, direct touch liquid cooling, and CPU gas pedals), or a new energy
conversion technology that results in more reliable on-site power generation.
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Innovators are also filing for patent protection in this technology space, and
looking at issues related to site planning and sustainable/renewable energy
planning.23
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Resource Risk. There is a paradigm shift from global resource access to
global resource management. One primary data center resource, energy use,
is growing with a more data driven culture. It has been estimated that data
centers account for about 25 percent of total corporate IT budgets taking
into account costs of facilities, storage devices, servers, and staffing and it is
estimated that servers consume about 1.3 percent of all electricity
worldwide.24
Data centers must quantify the effects on the cost and availability of a data center’s
major inputs of power and water, and, in some locations, free cooling, over the
duration of the data center’s program. Economic development incentives and tax
incentives can be better used to manage this risk. As environmental regulations25
drive global energy portfolios to more diverse fuels (solar, wind, biomass, geothermal,
waste heat recovery), there is future opportunity for on-site energy production,
renewable energy power purchase agreements, and/or regional power generation
participation to mitigate the risk of power cost and availability impacted by
environmental regulation. As illustrated in the following graphic 26, sites designed
with a fuel mix in mind can be managed in a long-term strategy to achieve carbon
related goals and simultaneously improve the geographic region's carbon impact.
Figure 1: On-Site Renewable vs. Grid Power – Power Fuel Management – $ vs. [C]
(Based on 100 MW accessing multiple renewable energy sources – biomass, solar, biogas)
EBay is capturing control of these factors with its progressive fuel cell design in Utah.
Dean Nelson recently described their approach, "At eBay we tend to challenge
conventional wisdom related to data center design and operations. In this way we
pursue sustainability by trying to build the most efficient data centers possible
so as to minimize our power consumption. With an efficient power consumption
model we then seek to minimize our carbon footprint through enhanced access to
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cleaner energy both on and offsite. Our recent decision to use fuel cells as our
primary on site power source for our Utah facility is an example of this
comprehensive approach that challenges conventional wisdom."27
Business Model Risk – A Question of
Decision-Making Control
The business model implemented for the data center operation has a prioritizing
effect that may significantly change the capacity to meet sustainability objectives
within the business realities of management control. For purposes of this Research
Report, three varying control models (i.e. enterprise, colocation and cloud) are being
used to illustrate challenges of implementing any data center business model. David
Hampton of Verizon explained the differences: “Co-location facilities locations are
dictated by regional market demand/drivers. Enterprise and cloud facilities can be
located in an area with broad site search criteria that key on location of employees or
latency. It [site selection] can also enhance operational efficiencies and access to
environmental site benefits such as renewable energy options, carbon energy mix,
free cooling availability, and other favorable site characteristics.”
Enterprise Model
For the purposes of this Research Report, the Enterprise Model is one where the data
center and the contained IT equipment are both owned by the same tenant, which is
also the entity served by the IT equipment. Enterprise data centers allow for
ownership control, enabling direct decision-making responsibility as a component of
program-driven strategic planning, including sustainability planning. Enterprise data
centers incur the highest capital costs, but are able to proactively manage the
outcomes of their facilities and better implement business model goals. Enterprise
data centers often tend to favor high availability and total cost of ownership over
sustainability (whereas cloud and co-lo data centers may be more inclined to
consider sustainability). For many data-driven organizations, the data center is a
core component of a company’s revenue sources, and the enterprise model is the
only acceptable path.
Enterprise model sustainability planning has been heavily influenced by the regional
or site-specific fuel mix. Mixing low cost carbon fueled energy with sustainable power
choices gives the enterprise data center owner options for adjusting total cost of
ownership and fuel mix as the market changes. By selecting sites with acceptable
fuel mix parameters from the legacy grid power and proactively using carbon offset
and direct investment strategies to produce on and off-site renewable energy
sources, the data center is able to proactively manage fuel mix and the resultant
carbon footprint. Philip Meyers of Morgan Stanley shared his thoughts, “With our
facility portfolio, we strive for a mix of fuels to add to the reliability of our energy
supply. Currently, we look at all sources [of alternative energy] to load balance or
load share, to balance fuel mix and blend down carbon mix.”
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Likewise, Gary Demasi of Google explained their approach, “Since 2007, we’ve been
carbon neutral as a company. We try to build the most sustainable and energyefficient data centers that we can. We directly purchase renewable energy where we
can, and for the balance of our footprint, we use high-quality carbon offsets to
achieve carbon neutrality. With respect to green energy, we try to locate in areas
where we can maximize the current amount of renewable energy in the stack, or
where there is potential for increasing that in the future.””28
Additionally, enterprise data centers may specify a data center program duration to
manage the potential impact of disruptive technology in operations or resource
management. Shorter project life, based on program objectives, can allow for greater
flexibility to implement new advances (disruptive technology).
Co-Location Tenant Model
Some data center professionals may be required to pursue colocation as their data
center approach, balancing control with cost. However, the colocation model results
in less control which means that fuel mix, renewable energy, and efficiencies of
cooling are out of the hands of the co-location tenant, whether it be a wholesale colocation or other co-location facility. Control not only effects sustainability decisions
like power portfolio sourcing, but also has an effect on the key operational
parameters, such as kw/square foot. Colocation site selections tend to be dictated
by traditional real estate market demand drivers, thus resulting in locations in
regional population centers and demand markets. The facilities in these locations
offer different risks of resource availability such as power and water. Data center
professionals with aggressive sustainability targets must consider sustainabilityrelated requirements when choosing a colocation vendor.
Many tenants believe that colocation involves a short-term decision of 5-10 year
programs average, thus reducing the factors that impact sustainable operation.
However, tenant survey data provided by Digital Realty suggests that the average
length of occupancy (with lease renewals) for wholesale colocation tenants is actually
much greater, with current occupancy for tenants in their facilities being 20 years or
more. The longer actual program life of wholesale colocation tenants may require
the tenant and provider to align their operational goals in order to meet longer-term
sustainability targets.
Review of LEED certification of the colocation operator, identification of regional
power source availability, and awareness of local and state policy, will aid the
colocation tenant to evaluate sustainability factors of the colocation facility. Tenants
may also wish to review factors such as PUE™ 29, CUE™30 and WUE™31 for facilities
under consideration and develop contracting techniques to better align the risks of
disruptive changes in policy and resource availability with shifts in control.
Colocation tenants can demonstrate sustainable goals by applying sustainable
performance requirements in their contracts, seeking to load their spaces with highdensity, high-efficiency platforms and by choosing hosting locations based on similar
criteria as enterprise users.
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Colocation providers should consider the opportunity to incent tenants with rewards
for implementing efficient hardware and equipment management software that
optimizes power consumption. This “partnership” between the provider and the
tenant has three distinct advantages. It can: 1) give a competitive advantage to
colocation providers to attract clients by contributing solutions to their corporate
sustainability goals; 2) help justify investments in on-site and/or off-site renewable
energy sources; and 3) drive local city and state economic development offices to
contribute additional incentives to perpetuate this model.
Cloud Model
A more “hands-off” approach for sustainable data center operation is found with the
cloud model. Similar to the colocation model, strategy and risk mitigation of
sustainability are left to the cloud data center operator. Operational risks, including
security and reliability are also left to the operator. In this minimalist approach to
data center operation, the customer of the cloud must be willing to give up all control
of sustainability decision making.
Without the demand drivers that locate colocation facilities near population centers,
cloud facilities have the flexibility to be located in semi-remote locations that may
offer sustainability advantages.
In order to understand the sustainability issues of a cloud data center, users should
review the regional power portfolio of the site, as well as the provider’s operational
and business approaches and sustainability plan. Additionally, customers can
demand carbon dashboards, specific to their purchased services and the equivalent
offset avoidance the service provider would expect the client to have created had
they built their own servers and data center.
It is worth noting that cloud providers will face the same challenges that
owner/operator or colocation facilities face in this convergence of site selection and
sustainability. Customers may be “outsourcing” their compute needs, but their
sustainability targets will remain. Moving the problem from your backyard to
someone else’s doesn’t mean the problem goes away. Just like colocation providers,
cloud providers can benefit from offering “clean cloud” capabilities. The cloud model
allows a much more agile way to move and manage workload to take advantage of
beneficial environmental conditions (such as follow the moon, peek shaving, or
demand response). The cloud provider can either bank, or reinvest these savings or
pass them along to their customers to accelerate the “clean cloud” model.
Tools for Managing the Potential Impact
of the “Collision”
Risk mitigation for increased sustainability is bound to follow the path of risk adverse
decision-making in other industries. Based on the Interviews, the Survey results, and
industry stakeholder practices, a path is proposed to allow data center operators and
site selection decision makers to better understand regional, state and local factors
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that will contribute to successful balance of cost, program goals and environmental
stewardship.
BUILD A REPOSITORY OF PUBLIC INFORMATION AND RESOURCES
A single and central web repository to identify, reference and link specific publicly
available tools for evaluating sustainability characteristics would help stakeholders
evaluate their options. Initial entries may include National Renewable Energy Lab
(NREL) maps for renewable generation capacity,32 Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) maps for electrical grid energy fuel mix,33 and FERC maps for
electrical grid reliability.34 Another component of this tool might be a consolidated
summary of tax incentives available by jurisdiction to offset the costs of sustainability
measures. Further, data center tools and calculators could be made available to
inform owners and users of carbon, water and efficiency risks as well as CO2 impacts
based on regional drill downs.
DEVELOP INDEXING CRITERIA TO BENCHMARK SUSTAINABLE
CRITERIA
The Interviews identified the opportunity to work toward developing a benchmark that
addresses certain sustainable site selection criteria. One of the most prominent
sustainable site criteria is carbon intensity and the ability to hedge against changes
in carbon policy and associated costs. In order to benchmark this particular factor,
the working group suggests that a new set of metrics be developed to measure and
predict current and future carbon intensity. The following could be a format for such
metrics to be considered for use.
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Current Carbon Intensity (CCI), which represents the percentage of carbon
intensity in tons Carbon per Megawatt-hr over the program life associated
with the power currently available to a site as measured on a state level as
well as a regional transmission area level.
Future Carbon Intensity (FCI), which represents an assessment of the
objective factors that would account for development of carbon friendly
energy sources in the regional transmission grid serving the site. The value
of FCI will be in projected tons Carbon per Megawatt-hr, and be calculated
on future dates that coincide with the program life of the facility.
Carbon Elasticity Factor (CEF), which represents a ratio of CCI to FCI to
reflect the site’s resilience to change in carbon pricing (i.e. CEF = CCI/FCI)
over the program life of the data center.
By way of illustration, if the CEF of a particular site is 1, that means that the site has
no reasonable potential to change the carbon intensity for power serving the site
during the program life. Alternatively, a CEF for a site of 10 suggests that there is
potential to manage the carbon exposure at the site over time.
DEVELOP GIS-ENABLED DATABASE WITH MAPPING OUTPUTS
Another result of the Interviews was the interest in a GIS-enabled mapping tool to
allow for preliminary site analysis by data center planners. This tool could extract
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data from the publically available maps and information to populate a GIS-Enabled
Database. It is anticipated that a tool like this would include a voluntary registration
for existing sites and facilities to make available certain information such as PUE,
WUE or CUE, and other criteria that might be important. An example output from this
type of system is shown below.
Figure 2: Illustration of example output (typical) for Possible GIS-enabled database
sustainability tool – Shown with drop-down of Renewable Energy "link"
EMPOWER GOVERNMENT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OFFICES TO
ENABLE RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT
Most local and regional economic development offices, especially in the US, do not
understand the financial opportunity of enabling renewable energy choices in their
regions. Other site selection criteria, such as connectivity, technical talent and
favorable climate conditions are already included in the economic development
offices packages to entice corporations to establish a presence there. Including
specific state and city “clean energy access or incentives” in an industry accessible
data repository could help drive the development of additional programs and
potentially new renewable sources in their areas. By providing a centralized, easy
access tool that shows these opportunities, the state, colocation providers, cloud
providers, and owner/operators equally benefit.
DEVELOP AND PUBLISH BEST PRACTICES TO SUPPORT
SUSTAINABLE SITES
The final recommendation of the working group is to urge development and
documentation of best practices to support sustainable sites. Examples of best
practices might include:
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A body of information to proactively inform governmental policy makers
about the data center industry, thereby minimizing risks associated with
changes to the regulatory and tax environments affecting the industry
Model terms for leases and other contracts to procure data center space,
which would manage PUE or other sustainability parameters for the facility
Establish an industry economic development working committee or forum
that interacts and discusses data center sustainability-related issues and
concerns in markets with a low CEF metric and proposes plans to increase
CEF opportunities
Conclusion
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Data centers have become the newest utility, providing critical services as foundation
to the information age. The global megaforces of population growth, increases in the
middle class, and resource scarcity are contributing to a higher level of public,
private, and media scrutiny of data center operations, including sustainability. As a
result, there is a potential convergence between sustainability and site selection. As
stated by Eddie Schutter, Lead Principal Technical Architect for Data Centers at AT&T,
“regardless of your company’s decision on data center ownership and business
model, the mega-force headwinds are potentially strong enough to cause a collision.
The core decision of site selection will greatly impact what risk is collided with first.”
In order to explore the data center industry’s need for best practices and resource
tools, The Green Grid commissioned a working group and this Research Report to
raise awareness, bring discussion, develop a strategy and forge a path to assist data
centers in managing the risks associated with sustainable site selection. As
organizations weigh their options for data center site selection, there is a need to
both educate and empower organizations through evaluation tools and data models
that transition sustainability from emotional and rhetorical decisions to objective and
rational business decisions.
The recommended path for industry is to:





Build a repository of publicly available information and resources
Develop indexing criteria for sustainable sites to help quantify future
resource risk, including use of CCI, FCI, and CEF, defined earlier in this paper
Develop a GIS-Enabled database with mapping outputs
Empower Economic Development Offices to Enable Renewable Energy
Development
Develop and publish TGG Best Practices to support sustainable sites
16
References – Bibliography
Acknowledgment and thanks are extended to Nancy Heimann, Pres. and CEO of
Enginuity Worldwide, LLC, technical contributor and contributing author to this
Research Report.
1
“Energy Efficiency: A Compelling Global Resource.” McKinsey & Company. 2010.
Web. 5 Oct. 2012.
2
“Expect the Unexpected: Building Business Value in a Changing World.” KPMG
International Executive Summary. Feb. 2012. Web. 4 Aug. 2012.
3
Williams, Jeremy B., and Judith M. McNeil, “The Current Crisis in Neoclassical
Economics and the Case for an Economic Analysis based on Sustainable
Development.” U21Global Working Paper No. 001/2005. Mar. 2005. Web. 3 Aug.
2012.
4
5
Survey Link: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e6l583cxh909gonl/start
“Online Community Aims to Cut Data Center Energy Costs, Save Planet.” Green Grid
Data Center News. Nov. 2012. Web 12 Dec. 2012.
6
Bush, George. “Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation
Management.” Executive Order 13423 of Jan. 24, 2007; Obama, Barack. “Federal
Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance.” Executive Order
13514 of Oct. 5, 2009. Web. 8 Sept. 2012.
7
Donoghue, Andrew and John Stanley. “Is Greenpeace’s War on ‘Dirty Datacenters’ a
Just One?” 451 Research. May 2011; “Power, Pollution and the Internet.” The New
York Times. Sept. 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2012.
8
“Leading Corporate Sustainability Issues in the 2012 Proxy Season”, Ernst & Young
LLP. 2012. Web. 15 Dec. 2012.
9
Haanaes, Knuth, et al. “Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point.” MITSloan
Management Review Research Report Winter 2012. Web. 9 Dec. 2012.
10
Makower, Joel, Editors of GreenBiz.com. “State of Green Business 2012.”
GreenBiz Group Inc. Jan. 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.
11
“Building the Sustainability Index into our System.” Walmart Corporate Global
Responsibility Report. 2012. Web. 13 Dec. 2012.
12
13
The Sustainability Consortium. http://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/
Bush, George. “Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation
Management.” Executive Order 13423 of Jan. 24, 2007; Obama, Barack. “Federal
Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance.” Executive Order
13514 of Oct. 5, 2009. Web. 8 Sept. 2012.
14
Anderson, Ray C. “The New Sustainable Frontier Principles of Sustainable
Development Foreword.” GSA Office of Governmental wide Policy. Sept 2009. Web.
27 Sept. 2012.
15
Brown, Bob and Marina Thiry. “Turning Data Centers Green.” IMFA Sustainability
‘How-To-Guide’ Series. Dec. 2010. Web. 8 Sept. 2012.
16
“Microsoft’s Top 10 Business Practices for Environmentally Sustainable Data
Centers.” Microsoft Corporation. Aug. 2012. Web. 30 Sep. 2012.
17
17
Stanley, John and Andy Lawrence. “LEED for Datacenters – Part 2: Upcoming
Revision and Supplier Impact.” 451 Research. Aug. 2011. 30 Sep. 2012.
18
‘LEED for New Construction & Major Renovations.” USGBC Version 2.2 Oct. 2005.
Web.
19
Today, coercive regulatory measures have yet to have a substantial impact on
where and how data centers are built. It is important, however, to be aware of the
current regulatory framework and how these frameworks could have a future impact
on data center development. In the United States, there is a patchwork of regulatory
schemes that may be relevant. For example, California has enacted the Assembly
Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. See Assem. B. 32, 2006 Leg. (Cal. 2006). The
Western Climate Initiative, although initially including seven states along with various
Canadian provinces, now includes the Canadian provinces of British Columbia,
Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and the State of California and seeks to facilitate
cooperative actions to address climate change and implement joint strategies to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. See WESTERN CLIMATE INITIATIVE,
http://www.westernclimateinitiative.org (last visited Feb. 13, 2013). The Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a cooperative effort among the states of Connecticut,
New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont, which sell emission
allowances through auctions and invest the proceeds in energy efficiency, renewable
energy, and clean energy efforts. See REGIONAL GREENHOUSE GAS INITIATIVE,
http://www.rggi.org/ (last visited Feb. 13, 2013). In terms of federal action, it does not
appear that at the present the federal government will be taking any substantial
steps to address greenhouse gas reduction. There have been previous attempts to
do so, such as the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, which proposed
to create a cap and trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, but failed to pass
the Senate in 2009. Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has
published a rule for the mandatory reporting of greenhouse gases called the
Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. See 40 C.F.R. part 98. The regulations are only
applicable, insofar as date centers are concerned, to greenhouse gas emitters who
emit 25,000 metric tons or more of carbon dioxide equivalent per year; it is unlikely
data centers would reach this threshold emission level.
20
21
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/taxing-carbon/
“Breaking New Ground on Data Center Efficiency.” The Green Grid Case Study.
Feb. 2012. Print.
22
U.S. Patent Application No. 13/018,219. Publication No. 2011/0191256 A1
(published Aug. 4, 2011).(Sayre et al., applicant).
23
Koomey, Jonathan. “Growth in Data Center Electricity Use 2005 to 2010.”
Analytics Press. Aug. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.
24
“Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the U.S. Economy.” McKinsey & Company. Jul.
2009. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.
25
Grice, James. “Site Selection, Incentives and Sustainability: A Development
Lawyer’s Perspective” 7x24 Exchange 2011 Fall Conference. Nov. 2011. Phoenix,
AZ.
26
Nelson, Dean. “eBay's radical redesign of the modern data center.” Greenbiz.com.
Jan. 9, 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2013.
27
Osipovich, Alexander. “Q&A: Gary Demasi, Director of Global Infrastructure,
Google.” CME Group. Oct. 22, 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.
28
18
Hass, Jon and Jamie Froedge. “Usage and Public Reporting Guidelines for the
Green Grid’s Infrastructure Metrics (PUE/DCiE)”. The Green Grid. White Paper #22
Version 2.1. Oct. 2009. Print.
29
Belady, Christian. “Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE): A Green Grid Data Center
Sustainability Metric.” The Green Grid. White Paper #32. 2010. Print.
30
Patterson, Michael. “Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE™): A Green Grid Data Center
Sustainability Metric.” The Green Grid. White Paper #35. 2011. Print.
31
32
NREL Dynamic Maps & GIS Data. https://www.nrel.gov/gis/maps.html.
33
FERC. https://www.ferc.gov/.
34
FERC. https://www.ferc.gov/.
35
Additional References:
“Breeam New Construction.” Non-Domestic Building Technical Manual.
“Consumptive Water Use for U.S. Power Production.” NREL Technical Report Dec.
2003.
“Crossing the Sustainability Chasm.” IBM Software Thought Leadership White Paper.
May 2012.
“Datacenter Sustainability. 451 Research: Datacenter Technologies. Nov. 2011.
“Location Matters: A Comparative Analysis of State Tax Costs on Business.” Tax
Foundation. 2012.
“Shaping Climate-Resilient Development: A Framework for Decision-Making.”
Economics of Climate Adaptation. 2009..
“The US Low Carbon Economics Tool.” McKinsey & Company Climate Change Special
Initiative. Mar. 2010.
Stanley, John. “Renewable Energy Certificates and Data Center Electricity – Part 1.”
451 Research. Apr. 8, 2011.
Stanley, John. “Renewable Energy Certificates and Data Center Electricity – Part 2.”
451 Research. Apr. 12, 2011.
Stanley, John. “EPA Generator Rules: Operator Impacts and Supplier Opportunities.”
451 Research. Oct. 24, 2011.
VIII. About The Green Grid
The Green Grid is a global consortium of companies, government agencies, and
educational institutions dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and
business computing ecosystems. The Green Grid does not endorse vendor-specific
products or solutions, and instead seeks to provide industry-wide recommendations
on best practices, metrics, and technologies that will improve overall data center
energy efficiencies. Membership is open to organizations interested in data center
operational efficiency at the Contributor, General, or Associate member level.
Additional information is available at www.thegreengrid.org.
19
Appendix A – Initial Interview and Survey
Results (Jan 2013)
20

Sustainable Site Selection

Transcription

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