Cloud Sustainability: What Actually Matters and What's Marketing

The Physical Reality

"The Cloud" sounds weightless. In reality, it's concrete, copper, silicon, and electricity—lots of electricity.

The International Energy Agency estimates data centers consumed about 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024, roughly 1.5% of global electricity consumption. This has grown at 12% annually over the last five years. Projections suggest this could double to reach 945 TWh by 2030—nearly 3% of global electricity demand.

This isn't inherently bad. Digital services enable efficiencies elsewhere. Video calls prevent flights. Cloud computing reduces on-premises server sprawl. But it does mean our infrastructure choices have real environmental consequences.

Evaluating Sustainability Claims

Most hyperscalers advertise sustainability initiatives. Here's what the claims actually mean:

Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs): The data center runs on grid power (which may include fossil fuels). The company purchases certificates equivalent to renewable energy generated elsewhere. This is accounting, not actual renewable power.

Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs): The company contracts for renewable energy to be generated. Better than RECs—it funds new renewable capacity—but the data center still typically runs on grid power.

Direct renewable power: The data center actually runs on renewable electricity. This is what Nordic facilities often achieve with hydroelectric and geothermal power.

Carbon neutral: Usually means offsets, not actual zero emissions. Read the methodology. Planting trees to offset emissions is better than nothing, but worse than not emitting.

What European Geography Offers

Europe has genuine advantages in data center sustainability—advantages rooted in geography and infrastructure, not just accounting.

Nordic Countries: Actual Renewable Electricity

Iceland:

• Geothermal and hydro power (100% renewable grid)
• Natural cooling (cold climate reduces cooling energy)
• No accounting tricks—data centers literally run on geothermal electricity

Sweden and Finland:

• Abundant hydro power
• Cold climate (free cooling most of the year)
• Strong grid renewable mix

Heat Recovery: Stockholm provides a remarkable example of circular economy thinking. Data centers produce waste heat. Instead of discarding it, Stockholm's district heating network captures and distributes it.

By 2022, Stockholm data centers provided enough waste heat to warm 30,000 apartments annually. Stockholm Exergi (the energy company) expects data centers to provide 10% of the city's heating needs. Close to 90% of Stockholm's buildings connect to this district heating network.

Example: DigiPlex's Stockholm data center generates enough waste heat to warm 10,000 households. What was waste becomes value. This isn't greenwashing—it's actual resource efficiency built into urban infrastructure.

France: The Nuclear Question

Scaleway's France region (Paris) runs primarily on the French electrical grid, which is approximately 70% nuclear power.

Nuclear power isn't ideal. Waste management requires centuries of careful oversight. Decommissioning costs are enormous. Accident risk, while low, carries catastrophic potential.

But here's the pragmatic European position: emissions cause more immediate harm than nuclear waste.

Climate change is happening now. Every ton of CO₂ emitted contributes to warming that affects billions of people. Nuclear waste is containable and localized—though requiring long-term management, it doesn't contribute to climate crisis.

If the choice is between:

1. Fossil fuel emissions contributing to climate breakdown
2. Nuclear power with waste management challenges

Nuclear is the more responsible short-term choice while we build out renewables.

This doesn't make nuclear "good"—it makes it pragmatic given current reality. France has committed to nuclear as bridging technology until renewable capacity can fully replace fossil fuels.

For data center operators: choosing French regions means choosing low-carbon electricity (not renewable, but low-carbon). This is better than fossil-powered alternatives.

Practical Steps for Sustainability

1. Know your footprint

Ask your provider for actual energy source data, not just marketing claims:

• What percentage of grid power is renewable?
• What percentage is nuclear?
• What percentage is fossil fuel?
• Is this actual power source or accounting (RECs)?

Reputable providers publish this data. If they won't share it, be skeptical.

2. Consider region selection

If latency permits, choose regions with cleaner grids:

• Iceland: ~100% renewable (geothermal + hydro)
• Sweden/Finland: ~60-70% renewable (hydro + wind)
• France: ~70% nuclear (low-carbon, not renewable)
• Germany: ~50% renewable (improving annually)

Electricitymaps.com shows real-time grid carbon intensity. For batch workloads or development environments where latency is flexible, choose greener regions.

3. Right-size your workloads

A container requesting 2GB memory that uses 200MB wastes compute. This is money and energy.

Measure actual usage with Prometheus:

container_memory_usage_bytes /
kube_pod_container_resource_requests{resource="memory"}

If your ratio is below 0.5 (using less than 50% of request), you're over-provisioned. Set requests to actual usage plus 20-50% headroom.

4. Question necessity

Do you need real-time processing, or would batch be acceptable? Batch jobs can run during high-renewable periods (windy days, sunny afternoons).

Does this data need to live forever, or can you implement retention policies? Storage costs money and energy. Delete what you don't need.

Efficiency Is Good Engineering

Sustainability concerns align with good engineering practices:

Efficient code uses less compute:

• Faster response = less CPU time per request
• Lower memory usage = more workloads per node
• Optimized queries = less database CPU

Right-sized resources reduce waste:

• Accurate requests = better pod scheduling
• Appropriate limits = prevent runaway consumption
• Regular review = adapt to changing patterns

Fewer network hops mean lower latency and lower energy:

• Collocate related services
• Cache aggressively
• Minimize cross-region traffic

You don't have to choose between performance and sustainability. Usually, they point the same direction. The code that runs fast also uses less energy.

European Advantages Are Real

Europe's geographic diversity provides genuine sustainability options:

Nordic regions: Actual renewable electricity powering actual data centers. Stockholm turning waste heat into apartment heating. These aren't accounting tricks—they're infrastructure advantages.

France: Low-carbon grid via nuclear. Not perfect, but pragmatic given climate urgency.

Germany: Rapidly growing renewable capacity. Wind and solar deployment accelerating.

When you choose European infrastructure, you can choose regions with genuinely cleaner electricity. This matters.

Sources:

• IEA: Data centres & networks
• Stockholm District Heating from Data Centers
• DigiPlex Stockholm: 10,000 Households Heated
• Carbon Brief: AI and Data Centre Energy Use

#sustainability #greencloud #efficiency #europeancloud #infrastructure