How to Audit Your Server Supplier for Sustainability｜Business

ESG: bringing business benefits

Recent research suggests that 90% of UK organisations have adopted ESG considerations into their corporate strategy. Between 2021 and 2022 in the UK, the number of certificates for ISO14001 [the international standard for an effective environmental management system (EMS)] compliance in the UK increased by 7% while the number of ISO14001-certified sites increased by 16%. Such numbers are perhaps unsurprising in the context of the significant business benefits cited as accruing to organisations that adopt ESG targets. Such benefits include reduced supply chain costs, increased profits, improved loyalty from the ever-increasing proportion of environmentally aware customers, and better access to investment.

Given the proportion of energy consumed by computing equipment – data centres are regarded generally to account for around 1% of the world’s electricity consumption – it’s more surprising that ‘news’ of organisation-level ESG commitment appears to be reaching IT leaders rather more slowly. In a 2023 survey of IT and procurement leaders commissioned by ASUS, only 61% of respondents said their organisation had sustainability and energy-efficiency goals (albeit with another 22% “working on it”). This relative lack of prioritisation at the server-buying level is borne out by a reality that we at ASUS have noticed: sustainability is not an issue that our customers routinely ask us, or our channel partners, about.

Given the priority more widely accorded to the issue of sustainability these days, I find myself wondering whether two of the reasons that we and our partners aren’t asked are that (a) customers don’t know what to ask, and (b) my industry is less adept than it could be in telling customers what it is doing to make itself and its IT products more sustainable? So, today, let’s address those questions: how can data centre/procurement managers audit equipment manufacturers and their products for sustainability?

Determine and take into consideration a vendor’s overall approach to sustainability

Today, and in common with most global businesses, major IT manufacturers are fully aware that they have a responsibility to be sustainable themselves (as well as being aware of the benefits already mentioned above). Just as ASUS or any other manufacturer is an element of its customers’ wider supply chains, each vendor has its own supply chains and likely expends considerable resources in auditing them.

Both ASUS and other manufacturers publish substantial sustainability reports, describing the significant efforts and investments being made in making both the organisation and their respective products more sustainable. As a step towards procurement of more sustainable hardware, reading these reports is a great place to start. For many organisations this should be part of the process: it’s hardly unusual nowadays for a business to insist that any organisations in its supply chain share similar values, most notably in respect of ESG.

Note the direction and speed of travel

These same reports may also provide important details regarding the design philosophy of the vendor/manufacturer in question.

This is important because it provides a strong indication of what you can expect from future products, not just those currently available. By way of example, the most recent ASUS sustainability report contains a commitment to ensure that each year’s key products demonstrate energy efficiency 30% better than the Energy Star standard in force.

Check product data sheets

Yes, I know this is obvious – but perhaps it’s still not obvious enough? Regardless of corporate sustainability policies, my experience is that there’s a temptation at the server-buyer level, to prioritise performance at all costs – the twenty-first century equivalent to the 1980s mindset of “no-one gets fired for buying IBM”.

Of course, there’s always been a strong correlation between performance and energy use. For example, maximum CPU power consumptions have risen from 270W to 350 and even 400W - no small increments for the power consumption of the server itself, but also bringing ramifications for cooling servers built with these more powerful processors. But there is also considerable variability between vendors in terms of energy efficiency – differences to which buyers need to accord priority if their purchase is to be considered the most sustainable option.

You probably know what levels of performance you are looking for; ask questions of your vendor to determine what level of power consumption such performance will incur, both for the server itself and in terms of cooling requirements. Either include targets as part of your tender criteria or at least make sure your provider knows you will be taking the numbers into consideration.

Check and validate support and warranty policies

Power consumption is an obvious and high-profile aspect of ‘sustainability’, but it isn’t the only aspect. Many manufacturers limit support and warranties to three years, beyond which a server is liable for replacement rather than repair or upgrade, in the event of a fault or a need to squeeze some extra performance/lifespan out of it. And replacing an entire server with a new server is clearly less sustainable than replacing or upgrading specific elements of the existing server.

But, for this to occur, your server vendor must adhere to appropriate design philosophies and support policies; check that this is the case. If it is the case, this approach is only actually more sustainable if your vendor determines (at the outset) how many replacement parts might ever be needed. If it produces too many unnecessary spares that will be obsolete before they are ever used, this represents unsustainable manufacturing; producing too few may leave it unable to fulfil its support obligations. Ask how your vendor will deliver on its warranty policy, especially if it’s extended.

Check the power supply specs

One way to save a lot of energy is to run higher-grade power supplies. In Europe, Titanium is now a minimum requirement – it’s a cut above its competition and very efficient. Choosing a more highly-specified power supply is also wise: instead of taking a 500 watt, take 800 watt or 1200 watt or even 1600 Watts. The less close to capacity they are required to operate at, the more efficient they will be. Ask your vendor and/or make it part of the specification.

Simply set targets

We are using the idea of auditing quite loosely in this article; what we’re really talking about is prioritising the sustainability of your new server(s), asking questions to which you should be confident of getting answers, and which you can compare between potential suppliers. But you may already know exactly what you want – for example, you may have been given a target of reducing power consumption by X or increasing sustainability metrics of your choice by Y.

So my next piece of advice is to go to your shortlist of providers with sustainability-related specifications that they need to hit. You are, after all, the customer.

Conclusions

As I’ve already mentioned, sustainability-related questions are not the first questions that customers ask; typically, customers are focused on the performance capabilities of their prospective purchase, not its energy efficiency. I imagine that most sales and pre-sales teams from server vendors would, if they answered honestly, admit the same thing, and we can all understand the pressure to ensure that a new server performs as required, whatever the cost.

Thankfully for all those organisations that have adopted ESG targets, server manufacturers and vendors are – largely independently of customer demand, at least in the UK – prioritising sustainability. Due to the level of responsibility for sustainability that manufacturers are taking, every customer inevitably benefits from servers that are always more energy efficient than the previous generation. With cooling technologies evolving, we may even find that we’re able to keep the overall proportion of global electricity production consumed by data centres as low as possible, all things being equal.

But praise for vendor initiatives shouldn’t let procurement and IT managers in the market for new servers off the hook. Perhaps the best way to audit us is for you to be demanding; to prioritise sustainability and make ever-more-sustainable choices? Whether you have formal sustainability goals already or they’re about to come your way, the computing products made by ASUS and other manufacturers are of huge environmental significance and are more than worthy of your attention. Ask us the right questions!