While they are at the heart of the cloud revolution currently unleashing the potential of the internet, data centers are also notorious climate polluters. The sector has received immense scrutiny for years due to its resource-gobbling operations and significant concerns over the ecological impact it has on local communities.

However, a recent report by McKinsey suggests that data center operations, at least in on-premises applications, may be a smaller concern relative to the substantial emissions from enterprise technology.

According to the report, corporate devices flood the earth’s climate with about 400 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent gases. Overall, enterprise tech emissions total roughly 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions – or, to put this in context, the equivalent of the United Kingdom’s total carbon emissions.

I think that with the increasing pressure on companies and large corporations for more substantial action on climate and sustainability issues, the McKinsey report could hardly have come at a worse time. Nevertheless, the data holds an advantage for companies willing to put in the work on climate issues. As McKinsey note, “progress on climate change requires action on many fronts, and enterprise technology offers an important option that CIOs and companies can act on quickly.” I’ll look a bit more closely at this data below and the implications it raises.

Corporate devices are nearly twice as polluting as data centers

End-user devices such as smartphones, laptops, printers, and tablets are the biggest culprit in enterprise tech emissions. Altogether, they emit between 1.5 and 2.0 times more carbon than data centers. There are a few reasons why this is the case.

First, corporate end-user devices are significantly more – and proliferate much quicker – than the servers in on-premises data centers. Employment booms, which have occurred often recently, typically cause device numbers to balloon, often on a one-to-one basis. Meanwhile, companies usually purchase servers and provision data centers based on forecasts of current and near-future use, and therefore need to upscale infrequently.

Second, end-user devices have a shorter refresh cycle than on-premises servers. For instance, smartphones typically get replaced in two years, while laptops and printers have refresh cycles of four and five years respectively. Meanwhile, servers get replaced every five years on average – and one in five companies wait even longer.

Third, and perhaps more importantly, emissions from corporate end-user devices are set to increase over the coming years at a CAGR of 12.8% yearly. This projected rise is driven by growing emissions from manufacturing, transportation, use, and disposal of these devices.

Consequently, taking action on enterprise end-user devices can be an effective way to quickly and sustainably slash corporate emissions. Some levers that companies may adopt include using energy-efficient devices, limiting the proliferation of these devices, exploring refurbished devices, and increasing product life span.

McKinsey also suggests that migrating from on-premises servers to “hyperscale” cloud-hosted computing may present one of the biggest emissions savings opportunities for companies. But can this provide the climate progress that companies need to establish their sustainability credentials?

The “carbonivorous” data center controversy

While the drive towards sustainability through “hyperscale” data centers may yet bear fruit, the data center controversy continues to receive significant attention. According to figures quoted in the MIT Press Reader, the cloud now has a greater climate footprint than the aviation industry. Starkly put, “a single data center can consume the equivalent electricity of 50,000 homes.”

And what is perhaps most frustrating is that the substantial portion of this energy use does not even go to active computational processes – those take up only 6-12% – but instead to redundancies stacked upon redundancies needed to guarantee the now minimum 99% uptime required by cloud users.

Hopefully, moving to hyperscale data centers will markedly reduce the resource requirements of cloud computing. But only time will tell whether that will be the case.

A Bedford-based company has made history after signing a deal to produce and deliver ten 100-passenger helium airships. The deal, concluded between Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) and Spanish airline AV Nostrum, is expected to create 1,800 jobs in South Yorkshire and contribute to the UK’s sustainability goals.

The Airlander 10 airships will be built at a recently constructed green manufacturing cluster in South Yorkshire and are expected to provide an employment and financial boost to the local economy.

Beyond this, the Airlander 10, which HAV says will have less than a tenth of the carbon footprint per passenger of a traditional jet plane, represents a leap forward in the race towards a cleaner and more climate-friendly aviation industry.

Responsible for roughly 3% of global emissions, the aviation industry has long been a target for a green revolution. But climate-friendly air travel has remained largely within the realms of experimentation, until now. While various options including clean aviation fuel, electric planes, and direct capture devices have all received varying levels of consideration, the industry had shown little promise of a viable and scalable option that could drastically cut C02 emissions.

However, HAV’s futuristic Airlander 10 airships can potentially move the needle on climate progress within the industry. Acknowledging the progress that the company’s deal with AV Nostrum represents, UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said, “hybrid aircraft could play an important role as we transition to cleaner forms of aviation, and it is wonderful to see the UK right at the forefront of the technology’s development.”

Kwarteng also noted that the local jobs being created by the deal was just as satisfying. “It is more proof of how the UK’s businesses are embracing new technology to drive growth and support high skilled UK jobs.”

The promise of helium airships

There are many promising aspects to the Airlander 10 deal, but I believe industry players would be most interested by the multiple applications to which the aircraft may be put. HAV initially designed its airship as a surveillance and reconnaissance vehicle during intelligence missions in Afghanistan since it is less noisy than a helicopter and can stay in the air far longer. But it also has interesting applications in commercial travel.

With a 400km range and a rigid body that can land or lift off from any surface, the craft does not need a runway or pressurized cabins. Therefore, airship stations can be more space-efficient, while the aircraft itself can provide more windows and cabin space for passengers. According to Rebecca Zeitlin Head of Marketing and Communications at HAV, the Airlander 10 presents a more enjoyable, and potentially more luxurious, passenger experience. She says that “every seat will be a little bit like a business class experience. The whole experience will be more restful.”

Helium airships can also make an impact in disaster relief operations, such as combatting wildfires and effecting evacuations during emergency situations like tsunamis, flooding, industrial accidents, and earthquakes. The craft can carry more than 200 people per trip and potentially delivers four times the amount of water – up to 300 tons per day – traditional firefighting planes carry.

I think there’s a lot to anticipate from the blossoming rigid airship industry in the coming years. It would be to see how the aircraft performs in real life situations, and with AV Nostrum set to take delivery of its Airlander 10 airships by 2026, we may not have long to wait before we get to see them in action.