CIOs could improve sustainability with data center purchasing decisions — but don’t

A huge majority of data center customers and operators worry about the environmental impact of their IT decisions, but only a tiny number put their money where their mouths are.

Despite 95% of data center customers and operators having concerns about environmental consequences, just 3% make the environment a top priority in purchasing decisions, according to a new survey by storage vendor Seagate.

And while 92% see the importance of extending the lifecycle of their storage equipment, only 16% consider it a major purchasing factor.

The lack of action on sustainability also applies to AI decisions, according to the recent State of Data Infrastructure Global Report from Hitachi Vantara. Among eight key priorities for successfully implementing AI, sustainability ranks last, with two-thirds of IT leaders not including it in their top three concerns.

Cost wins out over sustainability concerns

The discrepancy between environmental concern and action likely comes from other factors customers prioritize when buying data center equipment or services, says Jason Feist, SVP of cloud marketing at Seagate.

“Money talks,” he says. “Acquisition cost dominates most purchase behaviors, and then it’s the requirements to make sure that it’s capable of achieving the objective.”

CIOs and other data center customers are often obligated by their organizations to meet several requirements when choosing a provider, adds Jay Lawrence, CEO at IT solutions provider Equus Compute Solutions.

“Many organizations are still focused on performance, speed to deployment, and cost —often under pressure to deliver results fast,” he says. “However, the long-term ROI of energy-efficient solutions is becoming harder to ignore.”

Even if data center operators and consumers aren’t yet motivated to change their purchasing decisions, environmental advocates say the power and storage demands of AI deployments will force these groups to reconsider. The International Energy Agency projects that energy demand from data centers will more than double between 2025 and 2030, with AI driving the increase.

“AI workloads demand unprecedented compute density, and without efficient infrastructure and energy strategies, the environmental footprint can grow rapidly,” Lawrence says.

Making progress

The discrepancies in the Seagate survey surprise Jenny Gerson, senior director of sustainability at US and UK data center operator DataBank. Several large IT companies in the US have stringent sustainability goals, she says, and require data center operators to meet their requirements.

There is strong demand for Renewable Energy Certificates from US data center operators, she says, and an IT industry group called the iMasons Climate Accord is pushing IT companies and data center operators to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

DataBank has offered green energy options for about a decade, and at first, it was more of a marketing strategy than a demand-driven initiative, Gerson says.

“Before this was a requirement, some customers thought it was a ‘nice to have,’” she says. “It’s still obviously nice to be able to promote how renewable we are; however, it’s turned much more into a contractual requirement.”

While the Seagate survey shows little interest in changing procurement practices, sustainability has become a big focus in Europe, driven in part by regulations, says Kevin Dunn, VP and general manager for the EMEA region at Wasabi, a cloud storage provider.

Even so, many business leaders in Western Europe worry that disclosing their companies’ emissions data will create customer backlash. A recent Wasabi survey found that nearly half of business leaders are afraid to learn the full extent of their emissions data, and 61% fear public backlash if their emissions are too high.

Many CIOs are struggling with their environmental impact, Dunn says, because calculating their carbon footprint is a complex process. It’s difficult for CIOs to find their carbon footprints when they may use multiple electricity providers across several regions.

“Looking at genuine consumption numbers of electricity isn’t that complicated, because the large server vendors will tell you,” he says. “But when it comes to carbon footprint, that’s different matter entirely.”

CIOs can drive change

Even though it’s difficult to calculate an organization’s carbon footprint, CIOs and IT purchasing leaders trying to reduce their environmental impact can influence data center operators, experts say.

“Customers have a very large voice,” Seagate’s Feist says. “Don’t underestimate how powerful that CIO feedback loop is. The large cloud accounts are customer-obsessed organizations, so they listen, and they react.”

While DataBank began using renewable energy years ago, customer demand can push more data center operators to follow suit, Gerson says. “For sure, if there is a requirement to purchase renewable power, we are going to purchase renewable power,” she adds.

CIOs should pressure data center operators to be transparent about their energy consumption and carbon footprints, says Wasabi’s Dunn. The best time to apply pressure comes during procurement negotiations, he adds, because CIOs locked into long-term deals with data center operators have less influence.

“If you’re looking at a large procurement, then it should be beholden on the vendors providing those services or that equipment to give you a complete and open picture,” he says. “We urge all customers to apply that level of pressure at the point of procurement and not after that ships sails, when your leverage is diminished.”