Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions, Industrial  -  July 17, 2024

Tech Companies Seek Supplier Action for Scope 3 Footprint

Tech companies including AWS, Digital Realty, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Schneider Electric, are calling for all suppliers serving data centers to support greater transparency in Scope 3 emissions in an effort to lower the industry's carbon footprint.

The Governing Body of the iMasons Climate Accord, a program of Infrastructure Masons, is calling for the transparency and released an open letter that explains the importance of widespread adoption of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), which are standardized, third party-verified documents reporting the embodied emissions of a product. 

EPDs outline the GHG emissions of a product through its entire lifecycle from the raw materials in the product (e.g., how they are extracted, transported and processed), to manufacturing, transportation, product use and product end-of-life (e.g., landfill, recycling, repurposing, etc.).

The open letter demonstrates a push forward from the world's largest hyperscalers and digital infrastructure companies to drive meaningful change across the industry, working in partnership with their trusted suppliers.

The signatories of the iMasons Governing Body's open letter all have net-zero carbon emissions commitments in place to address their responsibility in mitigating data center carbon emissions with deadlines ranging from 2025 to 2040, which is at least 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.

Hyperscalers have implemented strategies to reduce and/or mitigate Scope 1 and 2 emissions, but the next step is lowering Scope 3 emissions, which can represent anywhere from 38-69% of data centers' total carbon footprint. 

Access to the critical information in EPDs empowers data center owners, operators and end-users to effectively calculate their environmental impact and choose products and services based on lower Scope 3 emissions to best align with sustainability targets. With the 250+-member iMasons Climate Accord representing an $8 trillion combined market cap, widespread adoption of EPDs is likely to have a profound impact on reducing global data center carbon emissions.

"At AWS, we are committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions across our operations by 2040 by investing in carbon-free energy, scaling solutions, and collaborating with partners to broaden our impact," said Eric Wilcox, Vice President of Data Center Engineering at AWS, in a statement. "We support the iMasons call for all suppliers to adopt the use of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to accelerate these efforts. By doing so it will provide greater transparency in Scope 3 emissions embodied in equipment and help accelerate the overall industry's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint."

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