Scala Data Centers signs iMasons' open letter for greater use of greener concrete

Scala Data Centers has announced that it has signed an open letter published by iMasons Climate Accord (ICA), a non-profit striving for responsible digital transformation and sustainable digital infrastructure.

The initiative strives to promote sustainable raw materials in the data center industry globally, and has outlined the hugely detrimental environmental impacts materials, such as concrete, steel, and aluminum, can have. In the open letter, the organization outlined that concrete alone makes up 11% of global carbon emissions.

It calls for the industry to:

Deliver a technology roadmap to decarbonize concrete;
Set standard baselines for embodied carbon reduction in concrete to measure against;
Share Environment Product Declarations (EPD) through EC3, an open-source repository to bolster transparency and accelerate technologies; and
Create a clear and consistent method to calculate emissions in concrete.

Its recommendations include utilizing as little concrete as possible and also highlight a number of solutions that facilitate this, including limestone calcined clay cement (LC3), which has a carbon footprint 40% lower. Likewise, it shared that other solutions such as alkali-activated cement based on waste metals, calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA), geopolymers, and glass pozzolans from recycled glass can boost carbon emissions savings by up to 70% and contribute to the expansion of alternative cementitious materials.

Speaking about its decision to sign the open letter, Agostinho Villela, VP of Engineering and CTO at Scala, said: "As a leader and pioneer in the Hyperscale colocation segment on sustainable bases in Latin America, Scala has an important role as a transformative agent. We promote a low-carbon economy and constantly seek and implement innovations focused on reducing our emissions and maximizing the efficiency and sustainability of our operations."

Adding: "This occurs both in energy consumption and in the study and analysis of technologies and processes that optimize inputs such as concrete, which plays an important role in our raw materials composition."

Scala Data Centers is one of many in the industry to sign the open letter, with others including AWS, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

Eric Wilcox, Vice President of Data Center Design Engineering at AWS, commented: "As part of Amazon's commitment to reach net-zero carbon by 2040, AWS is innovating and collaborating across the industry to identify and develop new ones solutions to decarbonize our data centre infrastructure. We look forward to working with iMasons Climate Accord, its members, and the broader industry to help accelerate and expand the availability of low-carbon concrete."

Meta's Chris Malone and Doug Mouton said that the giant recognizes the "urgency" to reduce the embodied carbon of its data centers. "One of the best opportunities we have is to deliver greener concrete faster through robust action across the data centre industry," said Malone, adding: "We invite our supply chain partners, industry innovators, and industry groups to collaborate with us to meet our ambitious sustainability goals."

Dean Nelson, Founder of Infrastructure Masons and member of the Climate Accord Governing Body, added: "The iMasons Climate Accord is proud to host the Greener Concrete for Data Centers open letter as it is perfectly aligned with our collective mission. Our intent is to showcase the commitment of industry leaders to help broaden the reach and accelerate the pace of adoption."

The full letter can be found here.