Foreword 3

Executive summary 4

1 Why sustainability and resilience are critical in planning data centres 7

  1.1 Data centre market dynamics are rapidly changing 8

  1.2 Six strategic constraints shape long-term data centre viability and performance 8

  1.3 Impacts extend beyond each facility across the entire data centre infrastructure lifecycle 10

  1.4 Four key decision-critical challenges 11

2 Decision framework for sustainable and resilient data centres 13

  2.1 Defining sustainable and resilient data centre practices 14

  2.2 Where decisions are locked in across development and operations 14

  2.3 Key considerations along the data centre development pathway 16

  2.4 Building from existing regulatory frameworks and metrics, labels and guidance 18

3 Universal decision principles and recommended metrics 20

  3.1 Six universal decision principles 21

  3.2 Recommended metrics 24

4 Market constraint profiles: why local context changes the answer 27

  4.1 Six market constraint profiles 28

  4.2 How to use the market constraint profiles 29

5 Stakeholder playbook and recommendations 30

  5.1 Recommendations for developers 32

  5.2 Recommendations for operators 35

  5.3 Recommendations for enterprise customers 36

  5.4 Recommendations for financial institutions 37

  5.5 Recommendations for policy-makers and regulators 38

6 Call to action 40

Appendix 42

  A1. Industry coalitions and initiatives 42

  A2. Impacts of tech innovation and advancements on data centre design 43

  A3. Data centre 101: types of data centres 44

  A4. Emerging trends along the development pathway 45

  A5. Existing regulations, metrics and labels 46

  A6. Tech sector report recommendations 53

  A7. Market constraint profile-specific notes for stakeholder recommendations 54

  A8. Data centre assessment criteria 57

  A9. Related reading 59

Contributors 61

Endnotes 64