Proposal for the draft EU sustainability rating scheme for data centres

Executive summary 

DIGITALEUROPE’s vision for the EU’s sustainability rating scheme for data centres aims to balance transparency with operational realities whilst driving meaningful environmental improvements across the sector. Building on the Energy Efficiency Directive’s (EED) reporting framework,1 we propose a rating scheme incorporating both building infrastructure and IT metrics as of May 2027. 

Our approach recognises data centres’ varying operational characteristics and improvement potentials. The scheme will initially focus on self-improvement, allowing operators to understand and enhance their performance within their specific operational context, before transitioning to a comparative framework in May 2030. We oppose the introduction of individual minimum performance standards, as these fail to account for the complex interdependencies between energy efficiency, water use and heat reuse potential, as well as the vast variety of operational controls across the sector. 

We propose a point-based evaluation system combining base metrics like power usage effectiveness (PUE), water usage effectiveness (WUE) and renewable energy factor (REF) with bonus key performance indicators (KPIs) that reward advanced sustainability initiatives. A particular challenge lies in addressing accelerated compute facilities, which utilise specialised hardware with distinct operational characteristics and cooling requirements that differ significantly from traditional data centres. Whilst these facilities deliver substantial computational efficiency gains per workload, they may display different patterns in traditional sustainability metrics, requiring careful consideration in the scheme’s future design. 

The rating system should prevent regional disparities that could fragment the EU’s digital infrastructure whilst ensuring fair comparison by categorising facilities appropriately. A detailed weighting mechanism and specific rating classes will be developed in early Q2 2025, forming the next phase of DIGITALEUROPE’s work. 

This position paper details how such a scheme can drive sustainability improvements whilst maintaining EU competitiveness, protecting business-sensitive information and supporting continued innovation in the data centre sector