Our world is more digital than ever, and data centers have become invisible infrastructure that underpins our increasingly connected everyday lives. Every email sent, every video watched and every file stored in the cloud relies on them. But there is generally little awareness of data centers’ environmental impact, which is often reduced to excessive electricity and water consumption.
To move beyond these assumptions and reveal the actual figures in a spirit of total transparency, Data4 has published the first comprehensive environmental profile of a data center through an in-depth scientific study based on . This method offers a complete assessment of a data center’s environmental impact, from producing the materials needed to handling the end-of-life process.
The LCA was carried out in partnership with APL Data Center, the leading French consulting and engineering specialist in data center construction and design, with the aim of highlighting the true impact of a data center and setting a new transparency standard for the industry.
Two white papers have been produced to make the results accessible to different audiences. A short version provides accessible insights into the main lessons learned, while a long version includes the full scientific analysis, comprehensive data and details of the methodology used.
LCA – an overview of data centers’ impact
Based on the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards, the Life Cycle Assessment allows a data center to be observed in all its complexity. Its focus extends beyond the operation of the data center, and also includes raw material extraction and processing, the construction of the building, multiple decades of operation and the end-of-life and equipment recycling process.
This comprehensive approach means Data4 can identify the most powerful ways of reducing its impact and guide environmental decisions based on specific indicators.
The study we have published with APL Data Center is based on an assessment of a 5 MW IT load data center, located on our Marcoussis campus in Essonne, near Paris. It examines the data center’s impact over a twenty-year lifespan as part of our “Data4Good” programme, which has already implemented practical measures based on this approach, including using low-carbon concrete, signing long-term contracts (Power Purchase Agreements – PPAs) for low-carbon power and designing low water consumption cooling systems that are 25 times more efficient than the sector average.
Operation and construction: key areas of impact
The assessment reveals that a data center’s operations are the biggest factor in its carbon footprint, accounting for 48% of the total impact. Cooling systems, power distribution and backup power systems all consume significant quantities of electricity, even if it is guaranteed 100% low-carbon.
Construction accounts for nearly as large a share of the environmental footprint. Producing the necessary materials – primarily concrete and steel – accounts for 39% of the carbon footprint, only slightly less than the impact from operation. These figures highlight how a data center’s impact begins long before it is even commissioned.
Linda Lescuyer, Head of ESG & Sustainable Innovation at Data4, says, “we can only improve what we understand and what we measure exhaustively. As a European leader, it’s our responsibility to move from a partial vision to a comprehensive scientific understanding of our impact.” She emphasises the need for collective action: “A sustainable digital sector can’t be legislated into existence. It has to be built, brick by brick, on a foundation of science.”
Thomas Martin, Deputy CTO and Head of Sustainability & Innovation at APL Data Center, adds that “the data center industry is faced with a growing need to limit its environmental footprint. The LCA and the detailed carbon assessment make it possible to go beyond a reporting-focused approach, instead putting environmental performance at the heart of the design process. Partnerships like this one with Data4 are crucial to pool our knowledge and develop more sustainable infrastructure.
Water: an extremely limited direct impact
Contrary to commonly held ideas, direct water consumption on-site accounts for less than 0.1% of the total water footprint. Most of the water impact comes indirectly from generating electricity and producing materials. By using “dry” cooling systems, with no cooling towers or adiabatic systems, Data4 has achieved a Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of 0.034 litres per kWh IT load in 2025 – almost nothing – whereas the industry average is around 1 litre per kWh IT.
Mineral resources: a strategic challenge
Electrical infrastructure (cables, batteries, inverters and generators) accounts for a significant proportion of the impact in terms of mineral and metal resources. Power supply installations alone account for more than 60% of pressure on these resources. The LCA demonstrates the need to optimise design, for example by limiting equipment redundancy (choosing N+1 designs) and rethinking raw material supply chains, using recycled materials wherever possible.
LCAs at the heart of Data4’s eco-design
Since 2020, Data4 has used LCAs as an eco-design tool. During construction, using low-carbon concrete and prefabricated slabs significantly reduces the volume of concrete needed and the associated transport. The aim is to reduce the carbon footprint per megawatt of IT load built by 38% by 2030, with a reduction of 13% already having been achieved.
On the operations side, the group reduced its PUE indicator by 10.7% between 2021 and 2025, has replaced high global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants with less harmful alternatives, now uses 100% low-carbon energy via long-term PPAs under which the majority of energy is renewable, and powers its generators with hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) fuel, reducing their emissions by 70%. Heat recovery projects include the first biocircular data center prototype developed by Data4 in partnership with multiple partners, which uses heat from the servers to grow algae.
Building a standard of transparency and a sustainable digital future
By publishing this white paper on its LCA of a data center, Data4 is shaping a new transparency standard for the industry and encouraging the data center ecosystem to adopt a rigorous, science-backed way of measuring impact. The aim is to share reliable, comparable data so that together, the industry can identify the most effective ways to lower carbon footprints and build a sustainable digital sector, data center by data center.
LCA White Paper (short version)
LCA White Paper (long version)
