Data Centers (DE-UZ 228)

The Blue Angel ecolabel has now been certifying data centers that are operated in a particularly energy efficient and resource-conserving manner for 10 years. The importance of data centers has certainly not diminished over the last 10 year as they provide the technical infrastructure for digital services in the private, business and public sectors – whether for network environments, platforms, data storage, cloud solutions or other services. The demand for centralised computing and storage capacity has grown significantly due to digitalisation and thus so has the demand for valuable energy resources and raw materials. This was reason enough to adapt the criteria for the award of the Blue Angel to the latest developments and changed conditions, such as the current state of technology and commonly established practices, so that they continue to provide good guidance for more environmental and climate protection in the data center sector in line with prevailing developments.

The previous environmental labels “Energy Efficient Data Center Operation” (DE-UZ-161) and “Climate Friendly Colocation Data Centers” (DE-UZ 214) have now been consolidated. The consolidated ecolabel for “Data Centers” (DE-UZ 228) will not only certify existing operator models but also those operators who manage their information technology at a colocation data center that has been awarded the Blue Angel. 

In order to be awarded the Blue Angel, operators of data centers and information technology must comply with minimum requirements and this must be verified by an independent auditor (mandated by the German Environment Agency). The environmental label for “Data Centers” may be awarded to those data centers:

• whose technical building equipment is operated in a particularly energy efficient, climate friendly and resource-conserving manner,
• whose operators develop and successfully implement a long-term strategy for increasing the energy and resource efficiency of the data center,
• whose information technology is operated efficiently,
• who enable their customers to implement measures to improve energy efficiency,
• and who offer guaranteed minimum standards and transparent reporting to create the conditions for IT operators to operate information technology in an energy efficient manner.