According to a survey by resource efficiency consortium The Green Grid 43% of participant European organisations lack energy efficiency objectives, while 97% need improved monitoring capabilities.
The October 2015 survey covers 150 IT decision makers within datacentre-owning organisations in the UK, France and Germany. It shows that while 88% of respondents believe datacentres are an important part of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, only 29% are able to entirely quantify the environmental impact of said datacentres, even as both national and EU policy makers push for the improvement of environmental standards.
“Our research also found that the top 4 challenges and opportunities at the board level were all to do with reducing and predicting costs, rather than on ‘green’ or resource efficient objectives," The Green Grid says. "This is likely driven by customer requirements in an extremely competitive marketplace, requiring increasing flexibility and ‘always on’ functionality, despite the common focus on data centres in CSR strategies. Datacentre managers need to adapt their ambitions for the future, moving away from immediate ROI towards long-term sustainability.”
The survey does have environmental positives-- 55% of organisations say energy efficiency is a highest advancement priority. As it should be, since the European Commission expects datacentres to be "at least" 80% renewable energy powered by 2020, meaning IT leaders need to invest further in resource efficiency policies.
“It is clear that many IT leaders need greater support in putting in place more effective resource-efficiency measures," the consortium concludes "The Green Grid, with its global membership and access to the latest in efficient data centre design and operations, is a partner that all those with datacentre responsibilities should consider more closely.”
