UN SDG GOAL #7 – Renewable Energy

AQ Compute takes ownership of making affordable renewable energy for all projects by purchasing renewable energy and ensuring new renewable power is installed for our data centers.

UN SDG GOAL #8 – Decent Work & Economic Growth

Through our membership with Cleanhub, we encourage respect for human rights and continued engagement in Asia to support natural social impact and drive social change. We strive to improve the dignity and living standards of people working in the waste management sector, and we are firmly committed to social justice and environmental protection in Asia.

UN SDG GOAL #9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Through our data centers, we support the digitalization of the economy, which is essential for the modernization of other industries and the path to sustainable development.

UN SDG GOAL #12 – Responsible Consumption

We aim to match each MW consumed by our data centers with an additional MW of renewable energy generation.

UN SDG GOAL #13 – Climate Action

AQ Compute delivers a net positive impact by incorporating sustainability practices to protect the environment, promote social benefits to our communities’ citizens, and mitigate the effects of climate change.

UN SDG GOAL #14 – Life Below Water

AQ Compute supports removing and cleaning the massive plastic pollution that the oceans and beaches face.

Beyond industry best practices:

• We align and subscribe to the EU Code of Conduct on Data Center Energy Efficiency, the iMasons Climate Accord, and the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact and embrace their main objectives: PUE<1.3; WUE<0.4 L/kWh; REF>75%.
• We incorporate a third strategic factor into our procurement decisions: environmental footprint. All equipment will be evaluated based on its ecological impact and the hypothetical cost of its later compensation through voluntary carbon credits.
• We build our data centers to achieve the highest sustainable building standards, considering the footprint of the civil works and building materials. We incorporate wooden elements, prefabricated solutions, low-impact concrete and high insulation to reduce energy loss.
• We carefully select high-efficiency equipment to achieve optimal PUE (power usage effectiveness) levels while facilitating the implementation of innovative liquid cooling technologies designed to meet future needs. Our topologies are flexible and adaptable to meet different load configurations and varying temperature requirements. We install advanced cooling systems in specific high-load areas to ensure adequate heat dissipation and management.
• We minimize water consumption as much as possible and aim for a cooling WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness) of zero. To achieve this, we use closed-loop cooling systems and avoid adiabatic cooling.
• We use the excess heat generated by our data centers for our auxiliary rooms and equipment. In addition, we actively promote the use of excess heat by neighboring communities for various purposes. By promoting the external use of excess heat, we contribute to better sustainability and resource efficiency in our surrounding communities.
• We continuously monitor our energy consumption in real time to optimize the performance of our cooling systems according to the precise requirements of installed IT equipment.

Innovation:

We will research, identify, and apply the latest innovative technologies in:

• Cooling: We study the usage of natural refrigerants, look to use natural cooling sources such as underground cooling, and embrace direct cooling technologies to achieve higher densities and temperatures.
• Energy backup and storage: We study H2 fuel cells for backup and prime power, gas turbines with emissions capture, dynamic UPSs and NiZn batteries. We also explore future-oriented technologies employed in other industries that we could incorporate into our data centers.
• Materials: Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is experiencing an incredible evolution, and we envision its future usage in data centers; other building materials with incorporated absorbed carbon are also essential to us.
• Carbon capture: Our research initiatives include examining active removal on-site using the right plants and materials for our façades.
• We use hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) for our generator sets and draw up a plan to progressively replace them with cleaner technologies.
• We participate in industry technical initiatives, such as the ones driven by the OCP, to help community-driven innovation.
• We foster collaboration with research institutes and private research and development initiatives to position our projects as the data centers of the future. We are excited about the prospect of implementing “proof of concepts” in our data centers in collaboration with vendors and customers.

Hard-to-Abate Emissions:

• We perform LCAs of our data centers and measure their actual footprint.
• We prioritize third-party certified carbon removal activities.
• We plan to engage in forestry activities.
• We explore artificial ways to remove carbon emissions using biochar or mineralization techniques.

We employ good practices and incentive programs for the lowest carbon, water and materials footprints:

Suppliers:

• We integrate our principles into our tendering process and will select equipment based on its environmental impact throughout its lifecycle.
• We introduce a third strategic factor in our procurement decisions: environmental footprint.
• We establish requirements for our suppliers to quantify the environmental impact of their products and provide detailed EPDs (environmental product declarations). These EPDs must include water and energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, material composition, production processes and non-carbon ecological metrics.
• Our requirements are based on recognized environmental standards such as ISO 14025, 14040, 14044 and 14046 to ensure consistency and compliance with international standards.
• Our goal is to create an ecosystem of suppliers who share our commitment to sustainability and actively contribute to the promotion of environmentally-friendly practices.

Clients:

• We are committed to engaging our customers in our green ecosystem, where we promote and share the benefits of efficiency and a low environmental footprint.
• We promote the use of equipment that meets the requirements of Energy Star and the EU Eco-design Directive.
• We favor servers with high energy efficiencies that comply with ISO 30134 guidelines. To drive sustainable practices, we encourage our customers to reduce the presence of idle and “zombie” equipment and minimize gaps in racks to optimize resource utilization.
• In addition, we promote the extended life of servers and advocate for circular phase-out practices to ensure that materials are properly recycled and reintegrated into the production cycle.
• Promoting these initiatives improves our customers’ operations, overall sustainability and efficiency.

Circular Economy:

• We prioritize waste reduction and are committed to using nonscarce materials, such as rare earth metals, responsibly. To achieve this, we strive to maximize the utilization of recycled and recyclable materials, and we employ material passports to ensure traceability and accountability throughout our projects. We aim to minimize diversion rates and promote circularity in all our endeavors.

• We sponsor local and global natural ecosystems, linking these activities to developing our data centers. We also engage in local social projects to generate an impact on local communities.
• Our incremental addition of new renewable energy capacity compensates for the capacity used by our data centers.
• We promote local employment and educational programs around the digital industry
• We advocate for health improvement via emissions avoidance through deploying renewable energies, heat recovery and circularity, and emissions removal.
• Our working style and workspace are sustainable as well.

Our planet is growing more connected day by day. We are responsible for taking care of it for us and future generations. AQ Compute aims to protect our planet by acting with our commitment to green data centers.

• We strive to be the most sustainable data center operator in Europe.
• We support innovation in data centers.
• We advance and participate in industry sustainability initiatives, such as the iMasons Climate Accord and the technical committees of technical societies.