About the Association
SDEA is a consortium of industrial and academic sustainability pioneers, united in crafting a measurable approach to datacenter efficiency and emissions certification. This collaborative effort, initiated by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), involves key players such as EcoCloud at EPFL, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Swiss Data Center Association (SDCA), and Swiss Telecommunications Association (asut). The approach to measure, not guess energy efficiency has gained the backing of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy through the SwissEnergy program.
Originating from a digitalswitzerland challenge in 2018, the goal was to position Switzerland as a beacon for green datacenter hosting by introducing a certifying label based on measurable efficiency. Responding to this call, the SDEA was inaugurated in January 2020, unveiling SDEA Label at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The Board & Experts
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Adrian Altenburger | Board Member
Adrian is a professor and the head of the Institute of Building Technology and Energy at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He is also a lecturer in the field of energy and building services engineering in Switzerland and abroad (ETH Zurich, HTW Chur, Harvard University - Graduate School of Design and Harvard University - Extension School).
Vincent Barro | Board Member
Vincent graduated from HEC Paris and Oxford University. He started his career in Import & Export in 2004 and joined APC in 2008. He has expanded his experience and knowledge across a few locations, including different cities in France, UK, Ireland, Austria, Germany and finally Switzerland while manifesting his expert insights in the datacenter business. Vincent is also active as a member of several institutions the CCIFS, CCEF, French Tech, to name a few and is active internationally in associations around datacenters and sustainability.
Martin Casaulta | Board Member
Martin Casaulta has been working in the IT industry since his graduation in mathematics, physics and information technologies, mainly as a technology consultant for enterprise IT infrastructure solutions. He has been with HPE since 1989, in multiple positions but always within the company’s presales community where he gained the prestigious title of Distinguished Technologist, a title acknowledging rigorous standards within the three performance criteria of HPE's Technical Career Path: impact and continuity of technical contributions, leadership, breadth and depth of knowledge.
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Fabrice Consenti | Board Member
Fabrice is a serial entrepreneur and after acting as CEO for many companies, he is now chairman of the board for EDIFICOM SA and serves on several other associations as Executive Committee Member like SDCA (Swiss Data Center Association). He is also Founding Member of Fondation SGH | Institut de Recherche Cybermonde. Fabrice graduated from EPFL & University of Lausanne (Switzerland).
Babak Falsafi | President
Babak is a Professor in the School of Computer and Communication Sciences and the founding director of EcoCloud, an industrial/academic consortium at EPFL investigating sustainable cloud and datacenter technologies. He has made numerous contributions to server design and evaluation with impact on commodity digital platforms. He is a Fellow of ACM and IEEE.
René Fasan | Expert
René is a computer scientist, MAS Information Security. For over 20 years he has been a specialist for datacenter infrastructures with focus on security, availability and energy efficiency.
Christian Grasser | Board Member
Christian holds a Master of Science from ETH Zurich and he has been working for more than 20 years in the ICT industry. Today, he is the director of the Swiss Telecommunication Association representing 400 Swiss companies. He has a broad professional experience in environmental topics, energy questions and ICT. During the last three years he organized an energy efficiency campaign for datacenters supported by EnergieSchweiz.
Fabian Lenz | Expert
Fabian holds a Masters degree in business & economics and started his career in the industry of technology about 7 years ago. Since then he worked in several international locations, such as Sweden, UK, Spain and Switzerland, developing international experience. Originally coming from the sports environment, he quickly appreciated the interesting & innovative character of the technology sector, working in different Sales roles for Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Frédéric Thibaut | Expert
Frédéric holds a dual engineer degree having specialized in Information Technology at ENSIMAG and Physics at PHELMA. With a comprehensive background in the semiconductor industry, he embarked on his journey with HPE in 2010, joining the Customer Innovation Center (CIC) in Grenoble and subsequently in Geneva. With a direct association with 2 data centers, Frédéric actively engages in multiple projects encompassing IT architecture, data center facilities and sustainable IT initiatives. His role extends to sharing his experiences to customers, offering valuable insights during workshops hold at HPE Geneva.
Project Manager
Matthias Haymoz
Matthias manages the day-to-day operations of the SDEA. After studying contemporary history and law at the University of Fribourg (CH), he began his career in journalism. After 15 years at a local radio station and Radio SRF, he switched to communications at the global strategy consultancy BCG and at the same time obtained a Master's degree in Leadership & Manage-ment at the ZHAW. Most recently, Matthias was Head of Marketing & Communications of BCG Switzerland and a member of the MarCom Leadership Team of BCG Central Europe before joining the SDEA.
SDEA Members
