Our sustainable development policy
DATA4 puts sustainable development
at the heart of its corporate strategy
Data centers are the pillars of the digital industry; they underpin the digitisation of businesses and society at large. This is why we have implemented the DATA4Good programme to put sustainable development at the heart of our strategy.
Supporting sustainable development by building environmentally-sound data centers
DATA4 Group’s reason for being is to “Sustainably develop data center campuses, to guarantee secure, always-online access to digital data for both businesses and wider society”.
With this in mind, we turn to our CSR approach to take practical steps to support the development of sustainable, responsible digital technology.
Reducing our environmental impacts, creating accredited training programmes, supporting the economic fabric of the regions – they are all ambitious objectives in which we are actively engaged.
Our responsibility is to facilitate the convergence of digital, environmental and social transitions.
A word from the CEO,
Olivier Micheli
A global, cross-cutting CSR approach
Our CSR programme covers four strategic priorities
To develop how we use renewable energy, and ensure eco-design, waste management policies and the preservation of natural resources.
To protect our employees and get them engaged, train them in sustainable development issues and facilitate their involvement in the fight against climate change
To share and innovate to promote responsible digital technology with our customers and partners
To actively contribute to the social and environmental challenges of the regions in which our European campuses are located
To develop how we use renewable energy, and ensure eco-design, waste management policies and the preservation of natural resources.
We have identified two priority environmental commitments:
- ramp up our low-carbon pathway
- preserve natural resources
Optimise our carbon footprint and limit the environmental impact of our data centers.
By developing a growth model compatible with the fight against climate change, we fall into line with the European agenda under the Paris Agreement on climate change. We have already undertaken essential actions to achieve carbon neutrality on our campuses. However, we want to go the extra mile to strengthen our low-carbon pathway looking forward to 2030.
We support the following initiatives:
- SBTI* (Science Based Target Initiative), which encourages businesses to set targets in terms of reducing their activity’s carbon intensity.
- Climate Neutral Datacenter Pact, an initiative launched by European data center operators, in partnership with the European Commission, the purpose of which is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
- Planet Tech Care whose signatories are committed to reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology.
Manage natural resources in a sustainable manner: water, rare metals, forests, natural environments.
We surround ourselves with experts to assess our impact on biodiversity and develop action plans integrating our ecosystems.
With our green construction projects, we can expand our business and manage our sites in the interests of sustainable development.
We take steps to protect natural habitats in the vicinity of our data centers, such as the Marcoussis forest at our French site.
To achieve our objectives, we will continue to invest in order to:
- Reduce the energy consumption of our infrastructures
- Increase the use of renewable energy
- Develop the circular economy with actions on our construction sites, our equipment and our campuses
- Manage natural resources and ecosystems in a sustainable manner
The design of our new generation of data centers allows us to reduce our electricity consumption by 20%.
Marie Chabanon,
DATA4 CTO
To protect our employees and get them engaged, train them in sustainable development issues and facilitate their involvement in the fight against climate change
Our objective: motivate and engage our teams in a common direction.
DATA4 has deployed the DATA4People programme, with a view to:
- protecting our employees’ health and quality of life at work
- enhancing diversity and team spirit
The purpose of this initiative is also to train and involve all our employees in sustainable development issues.
We plan to train all our employees in the Climate Fresk in 2022.
To share and innovate to promote responsible digital technology with our customers and partners
DATA4 created DATA4Innovation to encourage the emergence of innovative solutions and respond to the challenges of a responsible digital industry.
By working with our customers and partners, we go further in:
- solving environmental issues
- developing innovative tools
- improving our services on campus
The group is currently testing a number of solutions to improve the resilience and energy efficiency of its data centers, based on technologies such as the “Digital twin” which consists of comparing the actual with the theoretical operation of data centers.
DATA4 places a firm focus on green innovation in order to stay on track with its low carbon targets and become carbon neutral by 2030. To get there, it is important that we adopt a holistic approach so that we can optimise the environmental impact of our facilities across their entire life cycle (construction, operations, and then recycling)
Jérôme Totel,
Group Innovation and Transformation Director
To actively contribute to the social and environmental challenges of the regions in which our European campuses are located
With DATA4Community, we are determined to develop strong partnerships with the stakeholders of the regions in which our data centers are located, to meet their social and environmental needs.
We are going to create the first DATA4 Academy, with a view to raising awareness of our business lines in a context where digital technology will become a significant source of jobs in the coming years, and working with universities and grandes écoles to come up with new activities, in particular environment-related.
Jean-Paul Leglaive
DATA4 is involved at municipal, departmental and regional level to develop soft mobility methods, creating cycle paths in France and Italy, for example.
Data4 academy
Focus on the DATA4 Academy, a programme launched on the Marcoussis campus to develop data center professions
We are committed to helping our customers reduce their carbon emissions
DATA4 has been ISO 14001 certified (“environmental” standard) for several years. We undertake to:
- pursue a continuous improvement approach
- promote the large-scale environmental transition of digital technology
We provide them with our tools and our expertise in order to innovate and introduce more environmentally-sound digital solutions.
Our customers can access the “D4 Green Dashboard”, which allows them to calculate the carbon footprint of their hosting spaces and IT equipment throughout their life cycle.
As a result, this system enables our customers to make informed decisions when selecting their equipment, with a view to reducing their carbon footprint.
We involve our employees in our sustainable development approach.
DATA4 is resolutely focused on a collaborative and collective approach. All our teams participate in this responsible company project on all our campuses in Europe.
As such, a number of commitments have already been made:
- DATA4 undertakes to share and pass on its knowledge of a data center’s environmental footprint. The group helps evaluate the environmental footprint of digital technology and actively embraces the national and European agenda for a responsible digital industry.
- DATA4 undertakes to measure and share the impacts of its actions in complete transparency, based on the standard methodology detailed in ISO 26000.
White Papers
[Report] 2020 Data4 CSR Report
- An environmentally aware business
- Putting people at the heart of our social commitment
- A sustainable development focused on innovation
DATA4’s commitments to supporting sustainable development and promoting the construction of more environmentally-sound data centers are consistent with a genuine, global and cross-cutting CSR approach, shared with the group’s employees, partners and customers.
