Matt Evans, CEO at Lennox Data Centre Solutions.
Sustainability has become a catch-all word in the data centre industry. You see it in every investor presentation, government policy and marketing campaign. The rise of AI has only amplified the pressure, with headlines warning about the “environmental cost” of every ChatGPT query or new GPU cluster.
But too often, the conversation is oversimplified. Take the UK’s National Drought Group, which recently suggested that deleting old emails could help conserve water. On the same list: shorter showers and fixing leaks. As a message, it raised eyebrows across our sector.
Yes, water usage matters. But reducing a national debate on sustainability to email storage risks trivialising complex challenges. Oversimplified messages like that can backfire, raising a bigger question:
How should we talk honestly about the environmental impact of data centres without misrepresenting the reality?
The water debate
When it comes to cooling, water is one of the first things critics point to. Yet the reality is often misrepresented.
In the UK, nearly two-thirds of data centres don’t use water at all. Of those that do, only 4% consume more than 100,000 cubic metres annually. To put that into context, a single London golf club reportedly uses 85,000 cubic metres a year. The scales just don’t compare.
And, crucially, the water used in data centre cooling doesn’t “disappear.” It’s recycled, reused and returned to the water table. In fact, in many cases, using water can lower electricity demand and reduce carbon emissions. That shouldn’t automatically be seen as a negative.
The truth is, we need a more balanced debate. Data centres are an easy target because most people who don’t work in the sector don’t understand what happens inside – and, let’s be honest, the industry doesn’t always help itself, operating out of windowless sheds and often hidden behind strict NDAs.
But if we want meaningful sustainability progress, we have to start with honest numbers and fair comparisons.
Avoiding greenwashing
That same principle applies beyond water.
In cooling, much of the sustainability conversation has been dominated by Scope 2 and 3 emissions reporting. From a manufacturer’s perspective, these numbers can be massaged on paper without reflecting real-world impact.
That’s why we’ve taken a different approach at Lennox Data Centre Solutions; instead, focusing on tangible design improvements. By eliminating materials like foam insulation and HFCs, and optimising sheet metal use, we’ve cut hundreds of kilograms of weight per unit.
Multiply that across thousands of units, and the material savings – and environmental benefits – add up fast. And with over 1,000 solar panels set to be installed at our Genas factory in Lyon by 2026, these product-level gains are matched by site-wide initiatives that further cut emissions and support the UN Global Compact.
This is how you make sustainability real. Not by declaring yourself “the greenest” in the room, but by embedding practical, measurable improvements into every product you build, and – where possible – the space in which they are created.
Meeting customer priorities
Beyond sustainability, customers have many other priorities and focuses. They also want to know: Will it arrive on time? Will it work reliably? Will it hit the right price point? Our role is to build systems that deliver reliably and cost-effectively, while simultaneously reducing environmental impact where we can.
That’s why we take an engineering-led, collaborative approach. From logistics and installation to lifecycle support, we work with customers to anticipate problems and eliminate chaos. That’s where sustainability can slot in naturally, without slowing delivery or inflating costs.
It’s also why our ApX Series isn’t an ‘off-the-shelf’ product line. Each system is built around the specific challenges our customers face – from rising rack densities to footprint constraints – ensuring that cooling performance, efficiency and reliability are tailored to the real world, not just the spec sheet.
I grew up in design and build, learning my trade ‘on the job’. That grounding is exactly why I value solutions that are engineered for reality, not just theory. In practice, it means operators aren’t buying a generic unit, but a solution engineered to solve their unique problems today while adapting to tomorrow’s demands.
The case for smarter regulation
Looking ahead, regulation is both inevitable and welcome – if it’s done properly. Some European countries have started introducing cooling mandates, but these are still early-stage.
The challenge with those changes, though, comes when decisions are made top-down without enough input from the people actually building these systems. That leads to box-ticking exercises and unintended consequences.
Done right, regulation provides clarity, levels the playing field and can even accelerate project delivery by cutting through red tape.
Despite Brexit, the UK remains a critical hub for data centres. Historically, that’s been due to available power and expertise; but in today’s AI-driven economy, politics is also playing a role.
And with AI’s growth increasingly tied to national competitiveness, the UK wants to position itself as a leader. It’s just over a year since data centres were formally recognised as Critical National Infrastructure, and in that time the conversation around sustainability has only intensified.
That makes scalable, efficient cooling infrastructure an even more important part of the bigger picture – enabling growth while keeping environmental impact in check.
Moving beyond the buzzword
The challenges we face are real: extreme rack densities, supply chain volatility, fostering new talent while sustaining a highly skilled workforce, and rising scrutiny from regulators and the public. But the way through isn’t soundbites or overhyped efficiency claims.
It’s steady, practical progress. Smarter design to cut waste, honest communication about water and energy use, collaborative delivery that aligns with customer priorities and regulation shaped with, and by, industry expertise.
Sustainability in cooling won’t be solved overnight, and it won’t be solved with buzzwords, but if we focus on what we can do, and do it consistently, the impact at scale will be real.
That’s how we move beyond the marketing fluff, and build the homes the internet will live in for decades to come.
This article appeared in the October 2025 issue of Energy Manager magazine. Subscribe here.