Methodologies for estimating data center environmental impacts
The environmental impact of data centers is currently a topic of much discussion. In the second post of this series we look into the methodologies that are being used to analyse environmental impacts, with a view to create a uniform calculation framework that aims to minimize proprietary data.
In the first post of a series dedicated to the measurement of data center environmental footprints we reviewed the conceptual thought frameworks and challenges. We found that even as data centers are evolving and growing to become material aspects of the economy in both financial and environmental impact senses, there is confusion about terminology, lack of transparency about environmental impact measurements, poorly developed methodologies, and significant uncertainties. The main objective in this second post is to outline and document the current measurement methodologies and express their quantitative prescriptions in mathematical form.