Circularity: The data centre industry’s next frontier for innovation

All data centres face the same challenge of how to design and operate their facilities to reduce impact without sacrificing performance or reliability. Data centres, like many other buildings, are of course built using materials such as concrete, steel, and iron, which have large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions embodied/associated within them. However, thoughtful design and innovations can minimize carbon intensive construction through using sustainable materials and processes. Datacentres can also be designed to reuse waste products in operation or disseminate by-products such as waste heat to local communities.

According to IDC, there are two main approaches datacentres can take to reduce their embedded impact.

• Apply circular economy principles to waste heat and water recycling
• Use sustainable building materials and processes to reduce embodied carbon

The circular economy refers to a departure from our current linear ‘take-make-dispose’ model. It is a regenerative system in which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are minimized by slowing, closing, and narrowing energy and material loops. Like infrastructure including hardware, lighting installed in a datacentre can preserve value and avoid waste. By using the circular economy model, datacentres can minimise or prevent waste throughout the product lifecycle and recycle valuable materials

Moving beyond infrastructure and hardware, lights and luminaires also have a huge role to play in the sustainability and circularity in a datacentre. A circular portfolio consists of four categories: serviceable luminaires, circular components, intelligent systems, and circular services. Serviceable luminaires are fixtures that can be upgraded, serviced, connectable, energy-efficient, reusable, and recyclable. Circular components are exchangeable and have recyclable parts, such as drivers, controls, and LED boards. Intelligent systems monitor serviceable luminaires and enable preventive maintenance. Finally, circular services aim to prolong lifetimes and provide customers with end-of-contract options.

A great example of serviceable luminaires is 3D printed lighting. These luminaires are designed to be upgraded to meet the emerging needs of data centres. Whether these needs are performance improvements (higher efficacies in lumen per watt (lm/W) or better light quality), a diverse look and feel (different colour, texture or shaped housing), or a system upgrade, the modular concept facilitates these needs. Instead of replacing the whole luminaire, modules can be exchanged or added, thus preserving value and avoiding waste.

3D printing is a powerful tool that helps design and manufacture customised, recyclable products for consumer and business customers. At Signify, we offer a range of products designed for a circular economy and a lower carbon footprint. For example 3D printed luminaires are printed with recyclable polycarbonate and are designed to be fully reused at the end of their lifetime, avoiding material waste. What’s more, when compared with traditional luminaries, these innovative circular designs use no paint, less parts and less screws. Another advantage is that 3D printed luminaires can be made to customer’s precise specifications, blending with existing fixtures or integrating highly customised design features, and delivered in a fraction of the traditional manufacturing lead time. A 3D printed luminaire has almost up to 47% lower carbon footprint for its materials, production, and logistics than its conventional equivalent. As a business, 3D printing allows manufacture on-demand and close to customers, reducing the carbon footprint of freight operations.

With circularity as an integral part of a sustainable future, a customers’ sustainability objectives can be supported with services. The Light-as-a-Service (LaaS) model combines lighting design, installation, and maintenance in a single contract. Built on the concept of Circular Lighting, this includes design and install, operation, and maintenance of the product to ensure there is no need to discard a luminaire. With the connected system these lights work on, maintenance is easy, which cuts down on waste, costs, downtime, and manpower. This model gives the customer the flexibility to return the equipment, reuse it, or recycle it. Making these luminaires is one of the best examples of how sustainability can open doors to innovation and free up investment resources in other avenues.