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Transparency is key to making sustainability a core strength, says OVHcloud

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Transparency is key to making sustainability a core strength, says OVHcloud

It’s on-trend to crow about climate credentials, but finding evidence of tangible movements is much more difficult – and it’s time to change that

Cloud service providers vary considerably in the way they set out their sustainability agendas; variation that is even more noticeable when it comes to tangible information about commitments to reducing carbon emissions, as well as circular economies and other environmental initiatives. In some cases, environmental data is communicated and signposted clearly. In other cases, it's harder to locate - so much so, in some instances, that it almost looks as if the companies concerned are trying to hide it.

Not so with OVHcloud, which lists sustainability as a core strength, alongside sovereignty and open ecosystems. Rather than being dragged towards a position of greater sustainability by government mandates and customer demand, OVHcloud has made it a key tenet of the company's corporate strategy from day one. Transparency of approach and accessibility of data made good business sense from the outset. François Sterin, Chief Industrial Officer, OVHcloud tells us more.

"Frugality and efficiency have always been core to the OVHcloud sustainability track-record since its creation, through a vertically integrated model; we first introduced water-cooling way back in 2003 instead of air conditioning. At least 80 per cent of OVHcloud data centres operate on low carbon grids that were set up in former industrial buildings. We have a 20.9 per cent reused components ratio, so out of each one hundred components at least one fifth have been recycled for a second or third life cycle. More recently, to help optimise energy efficiency in the datacentre we introduced liquid cooling and autonomous racks.

"At the start of 2021 we in introduced a transversal sustainability programme across the business. Our strategy is to become carbon neutral on operations by 2025 and Net Zero by 2030 (on all three scopes), 100 per cent high-quality renewable energy by 2025 and 0 per cent on waste."

Leveraging real-time climate monitoring

The company bases this strategy on six key levers: monitoring and optimising the consumption of energy and water; leveraging renewable energy; maximising component lifecycle in a circular economy; and reducing supply chain impact. The final lever is providing help for partners and customers to address their sustainability challenges, by providing them with real-time energy information at virtual machine level and helping them develop best practices for software energy efficiency.

It is the final, client-focused criteria of this strategy that is which has the potential to effect real change.

"Earlier this year we signed the Climate Neutral Datacenter Pact, alongside 25 companies and 17 associations, to take specific steps to make data centres climate neutral by 2030. This is an industry-led commitment that we will be at the forefront of.

"In the near future, we aim to embark our ecosystem on a sustainability journey. One of the major drivers behind this will be to introduce real-time monitoring of the consumption of services for our customers. We have partnered with leading European technology research institute Inria (National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology) to enhance our sustainability monitoring and offer the same to our customers.

In 12 months our customers will be able...to monitor exactly how they are tracking against their sustainability targets and identify and address where they are falling short

"In the next 12 months our customers will be able to deploy Inria's real-time energy consumption and carbon footprint data via an API or web portal, enabling users to monitor exactly how they are tracking against their sustainability targets and identify and address where they are falling short."

OVHcloud is already measuring up well against its own self-imposed targets, which is visible in the key environmental indicators published on the company website (on an easily located page). For example, 77 per cent of energy consumed in 2020 was from renewable sources, and the 2025 target is one hundred per cent. Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) comes in between 1.1 - 1.3, compared to an industry average of 1.4.

The same page contains links to both OVHcloud's full environmental programme, which is helpfully set out in a way that the reader can quickly see exactly what the targets are, as well as how and when OVHcloud plans to hit them. Another report sets out carbon balance for 2020.

Don't forget your supply chain

The exacting standards of transparency set by OVHcloud benefit organisations considering the sustainability of the services into which they are buying. Driven by the buying decision of their own customer base, companies are having to polish their own ESG credentials, and the environmental impact of the private, public and bare metal cloud infrastructure services they subscribe to are becoming more important.

"Alongside data security, we are seeing sustainability play an expanding role in the customer decision making process. It's becoming a key section in RFPs we receive, accounting for up to 25 per cent, and in some cases more, in the make-up of the final decision," explains Sterin.

OVHcloud's commitments to sustainability are impressive, but the hyper-connected nature of business and economies means that whole business ecosystems have to be on board with this agenda. One part of a business ecosystem hitting sustainability targets just won't be enough. OVHcloud is working hard to extend the scale of their ambitions across the ecosystems that it is part of.

"The IPCC report on climate change that was published earlier this month really highlights the extent of the global climate crisis. We understand there are systemic issues involved and for us to rise to the challenge we really have to engage our ecosystem of partners, start-ups, clients and suppliers, encouraging both our competitors and customers to go faster.

There is also a need for education and training, therefore we are making a considered effort to ensure all our employees are trained and versed on all the key topics moving forward."

Transparency is key to making sustainability a core strength, says OVHcloud

It’s on-trend to crow about climate credentials, but finding evidence of tangible movements is much more difficult – and it’s time to change that

Leveraging real-time climate monitoring

Don't forget your supply chain

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