It’s been clear, for almost three decades now, that a global effort and international discussion is required to forge a response to the climate emergency. Agreements on how to step up global action to solve the climate crisis have been previously reached with international treaties as the Paris agreement and Glasgow Climate Pact – it is now time to show progress and substantial results against these building blocks pinned on paper.
During the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the consensus is proactively preparing for the future is now front and center. Leaders from around the world agreed that sustainability is not only a competitive differentiator for countries and business alike, but a foundational requirement for all to spearhead the fight against climate change.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a historic pact between developed and developing countries to combine capacities, and pivot the world towards reducing carbon emissions, transforming energy systems, and avoiding a climate catastrophe [1]. The proposed Pact would see all countries taking extra efforts to reduce emissions, wealthier nations and international financial institutions aiding emerging economies, ending dependence on fossil fuels and the building of coals plants, providing sustainable energy for all, and uniting to combine strategy and capacities for the benefit of humankind.
The United Arab Emirates has built a legacy of sustainability and has been an active promoter of responsible and eco-conscious growth. The county is acting boldly to spur transformative action to counter the existential threat of climate change. At COP27, the UAE launched the National Net Zero by 2050 Pathway, which identifies the mechanisms for implementing its strategic initiative to achieve climate neutrality 2050. The pathway defines the country’s climate ambition with an absolute emission reduction target.
In this global fight against climate change, data centers are working to reduce the impact of their IT infrastructure on the environment. However, meeting the data center energy demands while achieving sustainability objectives presents IT operators with unique challenges — from finding clean and renewable energy sources to managing power and cooling through adaptive intelligent control systems. Data centers are also expected to do more with less, provide more computing power while using less energy and shrinking their carbon footprint.
Data centers are making environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments an essential part of their business strategy. Khazna Data Centers introduced its ‘Future First Strategy’ to illustrate its unwavering commitment to utilizing renewable energy sources, increasing efficiency, and improving resiliency within its facilities. Khazna is continuously driving sustainability innovations and collaborations with its customers and partners.
Khazna has progressively adopted digital business infrastructure and is working on improving the efficiency of its data centers with an annual average power usage effectiveness (PUE) less than 1.5 – meeting industry benchmarks and has steadily improved over time.
In September, Khazna and BEEAH Digital formed a joint venture that will bring to Sharjah its first Tier 3 data center. The data center is designed with sustainability in mind and will be built in line with sustainable credentials implementing renewable energy sources to meet the data center’s power requirements. Technologies to reduce cooling requirements will be integrated into the data centre. With solar power, the project will minimise emissions relating to power consumption. With solar power, the project will minimise emissions relating to power consumption. Inside, smart LED lighting with motion sensors will also help conserve energy. With a Power Usage Efficiency of 1.5 and below, the data centre will be more energy-efficient compared to the industry average. The facility will also be constructed to achieve green building certifications from Estidama and LEED.
We recently signed an agreement with Emerge, a joint venture between Masdar and EDF, to develop a ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) plant to power Khazna’s new data center in Masdar City. LED lighting is used across all facilities which consumes less electricity and generates less heat decreasing the needed for air conditioning. Pre-cooling and free cooling are relied on whenever the weather conditions allow which contributes to less utilization of HVAC equipment hence less carbon emission.
Khazna is committed to designing and operating more sustainable and energy efficient data centers, just last month we announced that our two new data centers in Dubai which are currently under construction will implement tactics to achieve net zero waste standards and certifications by fitting them with energy efficient power systems, adiabatic free cooling chilled water systems and will be constructed to LEED Gold standards for green buildings.
Sustainability is on the mind of nearly every tech decision-maker today and working with digital infrastructure partners that are dedicated to renewable energy can make a sizeable difference in getting organizations on their way to achieving their own climate-related goals.