Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance

The Roadmap to Sustainable Digital Infrastructure by 2030

To reach our Sustainability Goals by 2030 we need to systematically embed sustainability across the sector. This roadmap enables every industrial actor to connect, benchmark, and deliver sustainability within their segment of the Digital Infrastructure value chain. Through universal reporting, and an industry-led action plan, the roadmap is simultaneously a reporting and collaboration vehicle that ensures we achieve Sustainable Digital Infrastructure by 2030.

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	2021				2022				2023				2024				2025				2026				2027				2028				2029				2030
	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Emissions (CO2-eq) 80 Mt/year (e) CO2 equivalents measure the global warming potential of a substance. This allows to assess all kind green house gases under one metric.
	Digital Carbon Footprint Impact Principle Improve transparency and accountability of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption in every stage of the digital value chain to enable better data for environmental impact assessments. Target Assessing a Digital Carbon Footprint is adopted as industry standard across the entire digital value chain for consistent monitoring and reporting. Sustainable Development Goals Contributing Members
	Consume Renewable Energy Impact Principle Decarbonize the energy consumed in sourcing of materials, production and operation of hardware (excl. end-consumer devices). Target The majority of data centers are consuming at least 50% renewable energy and use hardware with respective supply chain criteria. Sustainable Development Goals Contributing Members
							Increase Utilization Rate of IT Hardware Impact Principle Improve the energy efficiency of IT Hardware Target Industry average Utilization rates average 60% Sustainable Development Goals
													Leaner Architecture/Design for Software Impact Principle Reduce the amount of energy required to complete IT workloads by simplifying their design, and improving the wider digital architecture Target It becomes industry standard to update, improve and remove software that is too code and compute intensive Sustainable Development Goals
Energy Consumption (TWh) 104 TWh/year (e) Energy consumption across the value chain is a main driver of emissions.
	Leaner Cooling System/Data Center Heat Utilization Impact Principle Cooling Systems consume less energy it self and are designed to make excess heat available to offtakers. Target Cooling systems are designed to consume only 10% of the maximum utilized IT load and deliver 60% of their electrical input as excess heat to offtakers in non-tropical hemispheres. Sustainable Development Goals
											NZEB Building Impact Principle Reduce the amount of energy required to build, operate and decommission a data center Target 90% of new build data centers are classed as nearly zero energy buildings Sustainable Development Goals
						Standardization of IT Hardware Impact Principle Improve the recyclability and interoperability of IT hardware Target 90% of IT hardware are designed and built to a new industry developed standard Sustainable Development Goals
																			Secondhand Hardware Markets Impact Principle Improve the uptake of recycled and refurbished hardware Target 90% of industry hardware is resold on certified second hand hardware markets Sustainable Development Goals
Electronic Waste (WEE) 12.3 Mt/year (e) Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) includes ten different categories of waste including IT and telecommunications equipment
	Circular Design Impact Principle Reduce Resource consumption, pollutants and emissions by designing hardware and facilities with the full life cycle in mind. Target Creating and monitoring a circular design strategy is a standard for every producing, planning or energy intensive institution in the value chain. Sustainable Development Goals
									Extended Life Hardware Impact Principle Extending the design life of IT hardware Target It becomes industry standard for servers to be able to function with minor performance drops in its first 5 years of life. Sustainable Development Goals
											Recycling of Parts Impact Principle Improve recycling rates in hardware and their component parts Target 90% of new build hardware components are recyclable. Sustainable Development Goals
Resource Consumption (ADP) Not Available Abiotic depletion potential is a factor that is assessed in LCAs. It sets the quantity of resource used per functional unit into relation with the globally estimated reserves.
	Digital Resource Footprint Impact Principle Improve transparency and accountability of resource consumption in every stage of the digital value chain to enable better data for environmental impact assessments. Target Assessing a Digital Resource Footprint is adopted as industry standard across the entire digital value chain for consistent monitoring and reporting. Sustainable Development Goals
					Zero-(Fresh) Water Cooling System Impact Principle Reduce the amount of fresh water consumption in the digital value chain Target 90% of data center water consumption comes out as clean as it came in Sustainable Development Goals
											Zero Rare Materials Consumption Impact Principle Reduce the amount of rare earth metal consumption across the digital value chain Target 90% of rare material consumption has been removed compared to consumption levels of 2021 Sustainable Development Goals
Pollution Not Available Pollution can occur in many ways through a variety of pollutants. The measurement of the most common pollutants in ICT is critical for further progress in sustainability.
	Digital Pollutant Footprint Impact Principle Improve transparency and accountability of pollutant emissions in every stage of the digital value chain to enable better data for environmental impact assessments. Target Assessing a Digital pollutant Footprint is adopted as industry standard across the entire digital value chain for consistent monitoring and reporting. Sustainable Development Goals
	Zero-Pollution Backup Power and Cooling Systems Impact Principle Reduce the amount of pollutants produced on the operation of a data center Target 90% of data center operational pollutants (typically from backup power and cooling systems) are removed from data center facilities, compared to 2021 levels Sustainable Development Goals
													Zero-Pollution Manufacturing Impact Principle Reduce the amount of pollutants produced during the manufacturing of IT hardware and construction materials Target 90% of pollutants have been removed from the manufacturing process, compared to 2021 levels Sustainable Development Goals
Socioeconomic (Cost of Digital Power) Not Available The socio economic metric evaluates the price of digital power. A lower price enables better access to digital power for new technolgies.
									Defining a Standardized Framework for Quantifying Digital Power Impact Principle Be able to define efficiency and performance by standardizing a definition of Digital Power Target Digital power can be quantified and defined, and later benchmarked and improved Sustainable Development Goals
	Unbundling IT Hardware & Software Impact Principle Improve utilization rates and reduce the cost of compute by increase competition and prevent natural monopolies forming Target IT becomes unbundled (separation of infrastructure and services), facilitating independent compute and service providers, through vendor neutral marketplaces Sustainable Development Goals
																	Efficient Future Digital Infrastructure Architectures Impact Principle Improving the efficiency and reliability of tomorrow's digital architecture Target Rural digitization connects more than 90% of Europe's population with redundant, cheap digital power Sustainable Development Goals