“There is no such thing as a ‘green’ datacenter”

At this year’s Data Centre World Frankfurt, Matthias Haymoz, operational lead at SDEA, delivered a clear message: datacenter sustainability must be redefined – not by promises, but by measurable performance.

Full Interview with Matthias Haymoz at Data Centre World Frankfurt

Haymoz called for a sustainability reality check. If current trends hold, global datacenter energy use could increase tenfold by 2034 – from 240 to 2,400 TWh. Yet most industry action remains reactive, driven by regulation or customer pressure. With 76% of CO₂ emissions coming from daily operations rather than construction, it’s operational practices that demand urgent reform.

Haymoz criticized over-reliance on narrow metrics like Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), noting that PUE tells us nothing about IT workload efficiency, waste heat recovery, or carbon impact. He pointed out that average server utilization still lingers between 7-15% – a major source of avoidable energy waste.

“There is no such thing as a ‘green’ datacenter,” Haymoz stated. “All datacenters consume energy and emit carbon. The goal is harm reduction – not perfection.”

True sustainability, he argued, must be systemic: including full-stack measurements, waste heat reuse, local renewables, and changes in user behavior. It also means breaking down operational silos between facilities and IT – and aligning incentives in a business model that currently profits from data growth.

Optimism remains, but with caveats. For the industry to evolve meaningfully, informed regulation and rising customer expectations must take the lead. SDEA tools like the Navigator and Label are designed for this purpose – delivering integrated, independently verified efficiency and emissions insights.

Progress, as Haymoz made clear, begins with transparency.