How AI in data centres helps drive a more sustainable world

WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW

Data centres are the backbone of today’s digital world. But with research suggesting that data centres are now responsible for between 3-4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, innovative solutions will be needed to solve the climate challenge. With a history spanning more than 170 years, today Schneider Electric provides energy and automation solutions for efficiency and sustainability. Employing more than 140,000 people globally, Schneider combines worldleading technologies with real-time automation software, and services into integrated solutions for homes, buildings, infrastructure, industries and data centres.

As Marc Garner, Senior Vice President of Schneider’s Secure Power Division in Europe, explains, sustainability represents a key topic for the company and for the data centre industry as a whole. “Over the last 10 years in particular there has been a real focus on sustainability, challenging both ourselves as a business and our customers to become more sustainable,” he comments. “How do we work with our customers, and with the community, to drive sustainability and provide the knowledge and insight that we have and the tools and analytics to ultimately green our planet?”

As Garner describes, there have been significant advancements in terms of how data centres are using energy over the last 10 or 15 years. “Compare where we were in 2007, for example, to where we are