<aside> 💡 Our objective is to define the goals of an Ecolabel for digital resources and create a first catalogue of criteria that will be used to evaluate cloud infrastructure providers.
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IT Sustainability is emerging as a strategic topic across large organisations around the world. Yet many struggle with getting the information they need to generate reports and identify focus areas. Procurement can play a key role by demanding transparent environmental impact data from IT suppliers - be it cloud infrastructure, hosting, software & services - as well as setting clear criteria on digital resources themselves. The SDIA’s Type I Sustainability Certification for digital resources supports procurement teams get the right information and sustainably-made resources from suppliers.
Cloud infrastructure today is the most efficient way to generate and allocate digital resources to software applications. Cloud infrastructure consist of IT equipment (servers, routers, switches, storage systems, etc) that is placed in a data center building (the facility) and administered by an organisation (the provider). It’s worth pointing out that many traditional web- and server-hosting providers also have evolved to offer cloud infrastructure offerings, therefore this label is widely applicable.
In order to ensure that digital resources are generated in an environmentally & socially sustainable way and are allocated efficiently by cloud infrastructure providers, requirements are set on:
The first two categories are already extensively regulated i.e. through the EU Ecodesign regulation on servers and data storage products (Regulation (EU) 2019/424) and the EU standards relevant for data centres (EN 50600). Further, for each there are existing Ecolabels that can be built upon - from TCO Certified for server equipment to CEEDA and the Blue Angel.
However, there is an absence of clear requirements when it comes to the organization responsible for generating the digital resources and their operating principles.
As more organizations are moving away from generating their own digital resources from on-premise IT infrastructure to procuring digital resources from external suppliers, ensuring environmental & social standards are met becomes important. With the emergence of sustainability reporting and supply chain responsibility regulation, ensuring that suppliers not only meet requirements but submit transparent information on their impacts is another priority.
With a label both of these priorities can be addressed, both setting clear sustainability requirements for digital resource producers, their organizations and their operational practices, respecting existing environmental & social regulations and best practice as well as requiring standards-based reporting across all digital resource suppliers, getting the supply chain data required by both IT, procurment & sustainability teams.
The label further enables the SDIA & TCO Development to set the standard for what is considered leading sustainability performance amongst suppliers. The goal is to create a sustainability certification with requirements that only the leading suppliers are able to meet, creating a clear distinction for procurement.
Another aspect that we believe as important is the independence of the organizations governing the development of the criteria. Both TCO Development and the SDIA have a track-record, organizational and funding structure that ensures true vendor-independence, enabling the development of criteria which are driven by environmental & social challenges. As the SDIA will lead the criteria development, it’s also important to highlight the inclusive approach of the SDIA community - bringing in stakeholders from across the value chain, as well as academia, civil society and governments.
By creating a label based on criteria for sustainable cloud infrastructure (CSC label), it would become possible to assign an environmental impact to each generated digital resource generated by the cloud infrastructure owned and operated by the provider. This will make it easier for procurers, authorities, buyers, and users to evaluate the sustainability of the digital resources and the underlying cloud infrastructure . The label will require that each digital resource has the environmental impact information available as well as information on the overall environmental & social performance of the cloud infrastructure itself. . In general terms, the label will reflect: