Press Release: Legrand Becomes Latest Member of the SDIA

SDIA welcomes Legrand as its latest member

Germany, Hamburg, April 2021 - Global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures Legrand has signed up to the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance, whose mission is to move the global digital sector towards zero-emissions. "We are very excited to welcome Legrand to the Alliance," commented Max Schulze, SDIA's Chairman of the Board.

Decarbonizing the global digital economy

Founded in late-2019, the SDIA is a non-profit entity that uniquely aligns all actors of the digital ecosystem - from industry, governments to resource suppliers and end users to a mission of decarbonizing the global digital economy.

While drawing attention to the growth of the global digital infrastructure sector, whose carbon emissions rival that of the aviation industry, the not-for-profit organization seeks to drive collaboration across the value chain to promote a sustainable digital economy - from an environmental, economic and social perspective. The addition of Legrand to the Alliance will help the SDIA as it strives for greater intra-industry collaboration towards an ecologically and economically sustainable digital world.

Improving environmental performance

“Legrand strongly believes in the mission of SDIA. That’s why we are supporting SDIA not only through our membership, but more importantly by actively participating in the steer-co’s and contributing with R&D teams in lab projects”, explains Ralf Ploenes, Vice President Legrand Datacenter Solutions Europe.

Adds Ralf Ploenes: “On top of this, we strongly believe that our products are part of a much bigger ecosystem. As a physical infrastructure vendor we see the need for alignment in the value chain for the provision of digital services, this can span all the way to software vendors on the application side to optimize the way hardware and software interact. The only way to do this efficiently is through a consortium like SDIA. We are convinced that there is a big opportunity in working together with other manufacturers but also with developers, energy suppliers, startups and customers in order to test, improve and bring to market solutions to operate datacenters that will have a positive impact on the sustainability of data centers. This is one of the main reasons why Legrand decided to partner with SDIA”.

Legrand is fully committed to sustainable development. “We recognize that sustainability is a responsibility and opportunity shared across our organization. By choosing a ‘best of breed strategy’ Legrand’s recent rapid growth in the datacenter market was built through excellence in various product categories - among them PDUs, busbars, containment systems and UPS systems. We strongly believe that in terms of sustainability significant progress can be made if we optimise the way these products interoperate”.

Action and collaboration

SDIA and Legrand share a common vision when it comes to sustainability and the digital infrastructure. Max Schulze explains: “Action and collaboration will make a big difference in increasing sustainability and reducing the burden on the planet. The digital economy is transforming modern life in so many different ways. It is important that this industry takes a leadership role that is focused on impacts over rhetoric. We look forward to working with our members on quantifiable sustainability goals as we have described in our roadmap. Working together in this committed way, we are excited to be working with Legrand on this common goal toward actual,  achievable outcomes”.

Innovation Lab

The SDIA represents more than 55 members. The Alliance was established to drive collaboration across industries to enable a thriving digital ecosystem without negative impact on the environment through competitive and sustainable digital infrastructure. Recently the SDIA started a close cooperation with Green IT Amsterdam to establish an Innovation Lab in Amsterdam that is fully focused on research and innovation projects that help the development and implementation of new and existing technologies that lower the environmental impact of the digital infrastructure.