Supercharge sustainability efforts with a focus on data center efficiency

State and local governments are amping up their sustainability efforts, recognizing that reducing emissions is good government, good for the environment and a smart strategy for investing in a clean energy future.

Nearly half of America’s 50 states have adopted specific greenhouse gas reduction targets, using a variety of policies to promote alternative fuel vehicles, energy-efficient buildings and cleaner transportation. Locally, thousands of communities “are taking real and meaningful action on sustainability, climate, and clean energy” to help the environment and “improve quality of life for residents.”

The intensifying campaign in recent years coincides with renewed action at the federal level, with President Biden signing an executive order in December setting ambitious energy targets designed to make the federal government a leader in sustainability.

Yet there is more to be done and plenty of partners who can help. Studies have shown, for example, that governments engaged in decarbonization programs across the country are often working with the private sector.

And companies, including Pure Storage, have announced advancements in sustainability efforts of their own, helping customers monitor their power use and carbon emissions with the goal of reducing their environmental footprint.

State and local authorities seeking to accelerate their sustainability efforts can work with corporate suppliers and other partners to re-engineer their often aging data centers and data infrastructure. A continued cooperative relationship is likely to yield lower power and cooling use and cost, while reducing waste and mitigating environmental impact.

The federal government’s role in sustainability campaigns dates to the 1960s and 1970s with laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which declared a national policy “to create and maintain conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.”

But the commitment to various forms of sustainability at the local level goes back years earlier, to the Progressive Era, which saw “a concerted effort” to “promote improved sanitation and clean water resources, the cornerstone of public health sustainability.”

Today, at all levels of government, improving sustainability through energy-efficient and carbon-neutral solutions has become increasingly important. The growth of data and data centers—which are instrumental in the development and delivery of products and services—has made environmental progress even more imperative. This is because data centers are “one of the most energy-intensive building types,” according to the Department of Energy, accounting by themselves for about 2 percent of total U.S. electricity usage.

Improving energy performance can be a formidable challenge for state and local governments, which may have “older, legacy data centers” that are optimized more for reliability, performance or cost, as opposed to efficiency.

Yet the Energy Department also notes the prevalence of “opportunities to help mobilize data center energy efficiency projects” that would “realize significant energy and cost savings.”

With demand for data centers only expected to grow as governments modernize systems, state and local governments are stepping in—and stepping up. They are often leading the way in accelerating efforts to reduce emissions and fight climate change, especially amid often inconsistent policies and court rulings at the federal level.

Noteworthy examples abound, from New York’s highly ambitious climate law that requires zero emissions statewide by mid-century, to the mayor of Pittsburgh issuing an executive order that committed the city to become fully carbon neutral by 2050.”

State and local entities that want to join their colleagues and embark on the sustainability path can start with several important steps. They should undertake a materiality assessment—as many companies have done—to ascertain what environmental, social, and governance issues are important to stakeholders who are key to developing a sustainability strategy.

Moving forward, state and local leaders can work with partners to re-engineer data centers for smaller carbon footprints, with modular, upgradeable technology that will limit the energy and e-waste that comes with costly product replacement. Flexible subscription services are another possibility and can help remove the waste from under-utilized or over-provisioned systems.

Other possible steps would tackle the supply chain, optimizing it through measures such as consolidating documents and moving to recyclable packaging. That will help with surges in demand, in an environmentally sound way.

As sustainability and energy savings become increasingly crucial to organizations nationwide, state and local governments can take pride in all they have accomplished so far. They also have myriad opportunities to take additional, even more creative steps to improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and save taxpayer dollars.

Michael Wiseman is the vice president, public sector, Pure Storage, leading the sales team responsible for state, local and education customers in the United States. In his current role, Wiseman is responsible for developing a team to enable the transformation of how public sector customers protect, serve and educate their constituents by leveraging technology to connect, innovate and lead. Prior to joining Pure Storage, Wiseman spent 17 years at Cisco.