CyrusOne : sustainability chief Myers tackles water points at DCD>San Francisco

At the DCD> San Francisco conference hosted by Data Center Dynamics Ltd. Kyle Myers, CyrusOne’s Senior Director of Environmental Health, Safety and Sustainability, highlighted the critical and impactful leadership that CyrusOne and the data center industry are now playing in addressing water scarcity.

The conference, September 21-23, focused on the evolution of Hyperscale and its impact on the data center industry. Myers joined with Raouf Abdel, Equinix Executive Vice President of Global Operations, Excool Ltd.’s Chief Commercial Officer. Jon Pettitt and the Professor and Director of the Water Resources Center Venkatesh Uddameri at Texas Tech University and the Director of the Water Resources Center Venkatesh Uddameri on a panel discussion titled: Centers Address the Administration? ”

Moderator Dan Loosemore, Chief Operating Officer of DCD, opened the discussion by asking what their specific industries and companies are doing to solve water scarcity problems. Myers noted CyrusOne’s longstanding focus on water issues.

“We first look at all the markets we go to that are under water stress,” he said. “If we know that we are going to a region with high stress, we pay special attention to it. Our basic concept is water-free cooling – we do not use any water as part of the cooling activities at our locations, at least based on our standard design. That means that we only use water for irrigation or gray water use. ”

He also added a perspective on the problem of water scarcity.

“Climate change is at the center, as it should be, and climate change is obviously a global issue,” Myers said. “But water scarcity is a local problem. If you’re operating in an area where water is abundant, that’s probably not a big problem. But if you’re in an area where water isn’t that abundant, then we must all be best aware of data center industry practices. ”

Loosemore wondered what is driving CyrusOne’s focus on water issues.

“We all feel responsible – climate change is real,” Myers replied. “Customers, shareholders’ employees, directors and communities all place greater emphasis on the use and reuse of resources. For us, the story started with entering a market where water was scarce and the local planning committee said, ‘Use all’ power you want, but you can’t use water. ‘ That got us thinking about such a market and thinking about what design could work. ”

Customers in particular have driven the change.

“In the last two years in particular, the focus has increasingly shifted to the customer base,” said Myers. “It used to be climate change and that’s all you hear, maybe a little bit about green buildings. But now we’re hearing about water scarcity … and a big company. So we know it comes first for many companies. ”

However, reducing overall water consumption can help through efforts to increase renewable energy.

“The focus needs to be on the direction of lower water usage per kilowatt hour of electricity delivered to the servers – the WUE metric,” Myers said. “But it’s not just the water that is used on site, but also the water that is used to generate electricity. A great thing are renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind power – the water usage for them is zero, at least after the billing. Achieve water consumption. ”

It’s an ever-changing goal as the data center industry is now growing 10 to 15% annually.

“If you assume we’ll continue this line of growth for the next 20 years, by 2040 80% of the data centers we’ve built won’t even be built,” Myers added. “So there are enormous opportunities to use technology and innovations, to see what others are investing in, to try out new technologies. I think that will be the future, how we can make a difference and not make water scarcity an issue from an ecological point of view. “.”

Benchmarking and measuring the effectiveness of water use are also challenges, Loosemore noted. The panel found that the industry has not had a baseline or benchmark in the past. However, recent annual sustainability reports, such as the one from CyrusOne in 2020, have laid the foundation and increased transparency, particularly with regard to PUE and WUE.

“We all know each other and are all working to share best practices, so transparency is very important to us,” said Myers. “Most of us in the industry now create sustainability reports that have our metrics in mind. We also get a lot of analyst reports who do a good competitive analysis.”

However, we cannot consider PUE and WUE independently of one another.

“There’s a compromise there,” said Myers. “Often times, when you use more water, you can lower the PUE. But the opposite is also true. Burning less water often increases your PUE, so using more electricity is the best way to measure how good you look. But I’m going back to directional, which is key regardless of the metric you’re looking at. ”

Loosemore then asked how the panelists and their industries are driving change and solving problems with water scarcity more quickly. The data center industry is and will continue to lead in this area, Myers said.

“We’re in and we’re getting it,” he said. “We sign voluntary CO2-free commitments that are way ahead of the CO2 commitments of all nations. We are way ahead of the Paris Agreement and any other agreement you would like to mention. And it is driven by many of the stakeholders – there are customers, shareholders, board members and employees. ”

The data center industry is just too important not to stay ahead.

“Society needs innovation to solve the climate crisis, and that innovation happens through the use of analytics and data tools, AI and machine learning,” said Myers. “It all happens in the data center. Data centers are becoming a new utility without which we cannot function. From 911 centers and air traffic control to robotic surgery – everything happens within the four walls of a data center. ”

And the industry is leading the way by better minimizing its footprint. Myers cited CyrusOne’s recent efforts to make its Chandler, Arizona campus the first and first net positive water data center in the world. For this, CyrusOne received the Top Project of the Year Award as part of the Environment + Energy Leader Awards program.

Projects like this, along with new technologies and innovations, point to a brighter future. Loosemore urged the panel to look several years into the future and predict where the world will be in terms of sustainability issues. Myers shared his enthusiasm for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells.

“There is promising future development as we grow into this hydrogen economy that we hear about hydrogen replacing fuel for many things that are currently carbon-emitting,” he said. “PEM fuel cells take in air and hydrogen and then produce electricity and water at the back end. At the moment I see them mainly used for emergency power generation. But how great is that? We will actually add water to the watersheds. ”Only by using clean technology. You get the best of both worlds – clean electricity and you generate water. ”As soon as we can get renewable hydrogen, we can really have it all.

And that’s a win-win situation for sustainability.