We have been concerned for a while that as a technology company, all of the electrical power we consume needs to be as efficient as possible to ensure that we are not impacting the environment.
Net Zero
How can we achieve net zero? What are we doing?
Environmental Impact
The starting point in becoming environmentally friendly is understanding how much power as a technology company we consume, and how much carbon we emit. We currently consume 9.3MW of electricity per year across our whole server hosting platform globally, way less than our competitors, (figures are for 2023 down from 11.8MW per year up to 2022). Here in the UK, as of 2023, 73% of electricity is generated by non green technologies, ie burning of coal, or biomass or other gaseous fuels releasing CO2 at around 350g per KWh. Therefore, 73% of 9.3MW, is 6,789KW, and at an average of 0.35Kg, makes a total CO2 release of only 2,376Kg of CO2 annually, however, read on.
Off Setting
We are only taking power from companies that are guaranteeing that they are carbon neutral or are off setting carbon in such a way that all of the carbon for the energy that we consume (above) is fully covered to ensure we are net zero, thus cutting that annual CO2 figure to zero.
Other Ways
We now have an environmental waste oils trading license, so that we can buy and sell waste oils. Why? So that we can convert this waste into biodiesel so that our emergency standby generators can run on waste oils, which during an emergency power outage is more environmentally friendly than first use derived fossil diesel oils.
One of our concerns, is the release of particulates, however, after monitoring PM1.0, PM2.5, PM10 as well as NOx and CO/CO2, we have evidence that small diesel generators have negligible environmental emission impact when run on biodiesel. This coupled with the length of time they are actually running, further reduces all of our concerns.
Investment in Newer Infrastructure
As servers are replaced, we look at the most energy efficient replacements as part of our carbon reduction commitment. If you are a specialist server chassis builder and have a low power alternative to Dell and HP, we would like to hear from you.
Our pledge
We are fully committed as a multi-national technology company to maintaining our net zero carbon foot print surpassing any EU directive.