Towards a Sustainable and Scalable Digital Infrastructure for
AI and HPC
LISBON, Portugal, April 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the
Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP), the nonprofit organization
bringing hyperscale innovations to all, and infrastructure Masons
(iMasons), a nonprofit professional association of individuals
connected and empowered to build a greater digital future for all,
announce a new collaboration related to sustainability initiatives
centered on the iMasons Climate Accord (ICA). By aligning the OCP
Community's ability to impact the data center supply chain and
iMasons reach with the end user community, they will address one of
the industry's greatest challenges, creating sustainable and
scalable digital infrastructure capable of meeting the requirements
for AI and HPC from the data center to the edge.
To start, this new alliance will focus on standardizing a
taxonomy for supplier carbon disclosures related to data center
materials and equipment, including a digital carbon label providing
both calculated carbon levels and its corresponding methodology.
This work effort is led by Google, Meta, Microsoft and Schneider
Electric, and is critical for building a more sustainable industry
as Scope 3 emissions comprise the vast majority of the carbon
footprint of data centers. Almost all of those Scope 3 emissions
are upstream and take the form of embodied carbon in the materials
and equipment that go into building these facilities. In order to
meet net-zero carbon goals, the industry needs to organize its
supply chain to measure, report on, and draw down the embodied
carbon of data centers.
"We are very pleased to build our relationship with iMasons, and
the timing could not be better as the data center build-out to
scale, driven by AI, is upon us. To better support the ecosystem
and our community, it is clear to us at OCP that the current brute
force method of building more and bigger data centers is not
sustainable without behavior and technological shifts. Such shifts
will start with proper standardized methods for measurement,
allowing OCP's data center facilities, building and equipment
vendor members to adjust their products and end-users to make
sustainability part of their buying decision," said George Tchaparian, CEO at the Open Compute
Project Foundation.
There are many opportunities to create complementary
standardizations to carbon disclosure, including metrics for
measuring energy consumption, water usage and heat reuse. Other
efforts can explore the use of alternate low-carbon concrete and
steel, and building materials such as Mass Timber. Moving forward,
we are prioritizing actions with the greatest potential for
long-term impact while remaining adaptable to changing
circumstances and emerging opportunities.
"Achieving lasting change requires a long-term perspective that
frames and sharpens our short-term actions. We are excited to
collaborate with the OCP to compound our impact on digital
infrastructure globally. This involves addressing carbon
accounting, measurement and tracking to ensure our efforts cover
the entire ecosystem, and continuously build upon these foundations
for a meaningful advancement of long-term sustainability goals,"
said Dean Nelson, Founder and
Chairman Infrastructure Masons & iMasons Climate Accord
Governing Body Member.
Critical to the success of this alliance is the well-established
multi-vendor data center supply chain provided by the OCP vendor
member community. Upon delivering an open framework and set of best
practices and standardizations, the OCP vendor members typically
move rapidly to adopt and align their products accordingly.
When these enhanced products are then produced with
full carbon disclosure information for showcase in
the OCP Marketplace, further stimulating end-user demand for
products that comply.
"This collaborative initiative between iMasons and OCP,
aimed at tackling carbon transparency in digital infrastructure,
marks a pivotal moment in advancing sustainability within our
sector. By leveraging our extensive industry network and
community-driven ethos, alongside OCP's dedication to open
innovation and community-led standardizations, we are primed
for transformative and positive changes to best serve the future of
our work and communities," said Miranda
Gardiner, Executive Director iMasons Climate Accord.
"Sustainability is both a responsibility and opportunity for the
digital infrastructure industry to take ownership of its
environmental impact and drive positive change. The alliance
established between iMasons and OCP is a good example of how the
industry needs to rally to meet the challenges of building
tomorrow's AI capable data centers. Together the OCP and iMasons
have the opportunity to inspire and empower industry stakeholders
to integrate carbon reductions into their overall corporate
strategies and operations, by steadily advancing better
decision-making and accountability across the industry," said
Ashish Nadkarni, GVP/GM, Worldwide
Infrastructure Research at IDC.
About the Open Compute Project Foundation
The Open
Compute Project (OCP) is a collaborative Community of hyperscale
data center operators, telecom, colocation providers and enterprise
IT users, working with the product and solution vendor ecosystem to
develop open innovations deployable from the cloud to the edge. The
OCP Foundation is responsible for fostering and serving the OCP
Community to meet the market and shape the future, taking
hyperscale-led innovations to everyone. Meeting the market is
accomplished through addressing challenging market obstacles with
open specifications, designs and emerging market programs that
showcase OCP-recognized IT equipment and data center facility best
practices. Shaping the future includes investing in strategic
initiatives and programs that prepare the IT ecosystem for major
technology changes, such as AI & ML, optics, advanced cooling
techniques, composable memory and silicon. OCP Community-developed
open innovations strive to benefit all, optimized through the lens
of impact, efficiency, scale and sustainability. Learn more
at www.opencompute.org.
About Infrastructure Masons
Infrastructure Masons
(iMasons) is a global, nonprofit, professional association of
individuals connected and empowered to build a greater digital
future for all. Since its launch in 2016, the organization has
brought together 6,000 individuals across 130 countries, a
community representing USD 200+ billion in infrastructure projects.
iMasons provides an agnostic platform for members to connect, grow,
and give back across four strategic pillars: Education, Inclusion,
Innovation, and Sustainability. To learn more, visit imasons.org or
LinkedIn.
About the Climate Accord
The Climate Accord is a
coalition united on decarbonization of digital infrastructure.
Launched by Infrastructure Masons in 2022, the organization has
mobilized a community of 250+ member companies spanning data
centers, networks, cloud computing, energy, products and software.
With a combined market cap of $6T dollars, their purchasing power
will help accelerate the industry to net-zero carbon. The Climate
Accord Governing Body includes AWS, Digital Realty, Google,
iMasons, Meta, Microsoft, and Schneider Electric. Members are
working toward industry-wide adoption of an open standard to report
carbon in materials, and equipment and power to create a maturity
model to track progress. For more information, visit
climateaccord.org or LinkedIn.
CONTACT: Dirk Van Slyke
dirkvanslyke@gmail.com
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