What makes a data center sustainable in 2026?

Beyond electricity, sustainability depends heavily on early design decisions and operational efficiency. Erik elaborates:

“Designing for efficiency and circularity from day one makes the biggest difference. Low power usage effectiveness (PUE), smart cooling, heat reuse, and long hardware lifecycles will beat almost any single green feature.“

Efficient energy usage can also extend beyond the data center walls.

“The waste heat recovery we have in our Swedish facilities has a huge impact alone, letting us transfer the heat generated by servers to warm local homes, all through a closed-loop system. Traditionally, this heat would just go to waste, and in many data centers it still does.”

For organizations evaluating data center providers, Erik encourages looking beyond individual figures and trying to see the big picture.

“Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is important, but too many stop there. A holistic view should include carbon usage effectiveness (CUE), water usage effectiveness (WUE), and energy reuse factor (ERF). Heat reuse is especially overlooked. Measuring how much energy is returned to society, not just how little is consumed, will increasingly separate truly sustainable data centers from the rest.”

Although reducing an organization’s digital footprint can appear complex, several high-impact decisions are straightforward to implement.

“Choosing where your data lives makes a big difference. A workload in a high-PUE, fossil-powered site emits many times more than the same workload in an efficient, renewables-based facility. Hardware strategy is another one. Extending server lifetimes and reusing components cuts embodied emissions significantly compared to frequent replacements.“

“You don’t need to relocate every application—a hybrid infrastructure goes a long way too. Once that’s in place, I’d look at right-sizing resources, reducing idle capacity, and placing non-critical workloads where and when energy efficiency is highest.”

Looking ahead, sustainability in data centers is becoming increasingly interconnected with infrastructure, energy systems, and societal needs.

“What excites me most is the shift from data centers trying to be less bad to regenerative thinking. Data centers can become flexible resources for the energy system rather than just consumers. Heat reuse into district heating, fossil-free backup power, and smarter workload placement can turn data centers into stabilizers for renewable grids and value creators for local communities.”