PremDay #2 - LCA at scale: how to retrieve reliable data across vendors

With the EU regulation CSRD and rising customer demand for transparency regarding environmental impact, getting accurate and comparable data from hardware manufacturers is key. With this talk, Antoine Coetsier will expose how Exoscale collects and assesses the LCA of heterogeneous hardware and point out the gaps that still exist in getting better data.

Transcript

1. Simple. Sovereign. Sustainable. Member of LCA at scale PremDay Paris - April 2nd, 2025
2. Member of About Antoine Coetsier Co-Founder & COO +22 years experience 24/7 Based in Lausanne, CH Background - System Engineer - Worked at a large Telco - Exoscale is the second public cloud I build/run PremDay 2025 2
3. Member of Exoscale Over Time Becoming a European Cloud Provider. Foundation Incubating with Veltigroup 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 OpenCloud Launch Launch at Cloud Expo Europe Second Zone Zurich deployed A1 Digital Acquisition Capacity increase and European expansion European Expansion Sofia & Munich Zones SKS & DBaaS Major expansion of product portfolio 2023 2024 Blockstorage Support Plans Sustainabillity Reports 2025 European Expansion New Zones 3 PremDay 2025
4. Member of Facts & Figures A quick look at Exoscale. PremDay 2025 4 10+ Years of experience European Office Locations 3 Employees 100+ 15k Customers 200+ Partners across Europe
5. Data centers ISO 27001 Certified and more Close to all major European nodes. Features: ▪ Multihomed on all locations ▪ Several peering connections ▪ Internal 400 Gbps backbone ▪ GDPR-compliant PremDay 2025
6. Safe. Scalable. Simple.
7. Member of IaaS+ PremDay 2025 7 Data Center Infrastructure Audit Trail, Security, Compliance, Sustainability Compute DBaaS Virtual Servers GPU Servers Object Storage DNS, CDN NLB, EIP, IPv6 API Container Orchestration A p p l i c a t i o n s Block Storage Base IaaS+ IaaS IAM DevOps Tools Autoscaler OpenSearch Scalable Kubernetes Service Container Registry MySQL, PostgreSQL Valkey, Kafka Automated Backup, Replication, Encryption Storage Networking Grafana, Thanos Block Storage
8. Safe. Scalable. Simple.
9. Member of Trust as basic principle Adhering to global and local frameworks and certifications. PremDay 2025 9 GDPR compliant https://www.exoscale.com/complianc e/
10. Safe. Scalable. Simple.
11. Sustainable. Sovereign. Simple.
12. Member of Why Sustainability Matters – The Regulatory Landscape - The CSRD, effective for companies with 1000+ employees, requires comprehensive environmental disclosures starting in 2024. - This includes the energy and resource impact of cloud services, a significant portion of modern IT footprints. - Enterprises need precise data from providers like Exoscale to meet these obligations. - Cloud computing is inherently energy-intensive, with data centers consuming vast amounts of electricity and resources. - Measuring and reporting this impact isn’t just compliance—it’s the foundation for reducing it, and Exoscale leads the way. PremDay 2025 12
13. Member of Why Sustainability Matters – The Business Case PremDay 2025 13 • Cloud infrastructure is challenging to make eco-friendly due to its reliance on hardware, power, and cooling systems. • However, measuring environmental impact is the first step toward meaningful improvement, and Exoscale empowers customers with this capability. • Transparency enhances our brand reputation, aligning with the values of sustainability-focused clients in sectors like tech, finance, and manufacturing. • In a crowded cloud market, our sustainability leadership provides a competitive differentiator, especially for customers prioritizing green credentials alongside performance and cost.
14. “ 14 Slide Library | Confidential People are Turning Environmental Responsibility into a Competitive Advantage
15. Member of Understanding LCA – A Comprehensive Approach - Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a standardized methodology to assess the environmental impact of a product or service across its entire life cycle. - Key stages include: - Raw material extraction: Mining metals for servers. - Manufacturing: Assembling hardware components. - Transportation: Moving the manufactured product - Usage: Powering and cooling data centers. - End-of-life: Recycling or disposing of equipment. - Unlike carbon-only metrics, LCA evaluates multiple impacts—carbon emissions, water usage, resource depletion—offering a holistic view of sustainability. PremDay 2025 15
16. Member of Lifecycle Analysis in the Regulatory Landscape PremDay 2025 16 - LCA aligns with EU environmental display rules, which aim to standardize how companies report sustainability data. - Product Category Rules (PCR) are industry-specific guidelines that ensure LCA results are consistent, credible, and comparable. - For cloud services, no PCRs not available before 2023 to define how providers report impacts like energy use and hardware lifecycle. - The absence of PCR make the exercise very subjective and dependent on the analyst judgement. - Exoscale’s proactive adoption of LCA positions us ahead of these emerging requirements, giving customers confidence in our reporting.
17. Member of ADEME and the Cloud PCR Initiative - ADEME, the French Agency for Ecological Transition, is a global leader in sustainability standards. - In January 2023, ADEME published the first draft PCR for cloud services, setting a benchmark for the industry. - In 2024, Exoscale joined a collective action with ADEME and other stakeholders to test and refine this PCR, ensuring it meets real-world needs. - New PCR released in January April 2025 PremDay 2025 17
18. Member of Working Group 18
19. Member of LCA vs. Carbon Accounting vs. GHG Protocol PremDay 2025 19 Aspect LCA Carbon Accounting GHG Protocol Scope Entire life cycle (cradle to grave) Usage phase only (e.g., electricity) Usage phase only (Scope 1, 2, 3 emissions) Impact Metrics Multi-dimensional (carbon, water, resources) Carbon emissions only Carbon emissions only Granularity Detailed, product/service-level Broader, often aggregated Company-wide reporting Primary Use Comprehensive sustainability analysis Simplified emissions tracking Regulatory and corporate reporting • Key Insight: LCA’s broader scope and detail make it ideal for customers seeking actionable, transparent data beyond basic carbon metrics.
20. Member of Cloud Assess https://www.cloudassess.org/ Open Source, check it out! PremDay 2025 20
21. Member of CloudAssess: Revolutionizing LCA with Automation - Traditional LCA is labor-intensive, relying on manual data collection and Excel spreadsheets, often taking months to complete. - CloudAssess transforms this process by automating LCA using LCA as Code, a cutting-edge approach that integrates environmental assessment into our infrastructure. - We conduct a full LCA every month, providing near-real-time insights—a frequency and scale unmatched by competitors. - This automation ensures our reporting is not only comprehensive but also practical for customers needing regular updates. PremDay 2025 21
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23. Member of Exoscale Uses Good Quality Data PremDay 2025 23 • Data Quality: ◦ Exoscale uses ResilioDB, a proprietary database with high-quality, industry-specific data tailored to cloud services. ◦ Industry often relies on generic, outdated open-source datasets, reducing accuracy. ◦ We incorporate real-time electricity data, not yearly averages, for precise impact calculations.
24. Member of What about hardware data? Pessimistic principle: - If you do not know the impact ⇒ assume the worst - Manufacturers provide only partial data If data is available: - It is often out of date - It is deep in a PDF Call for cooperation - Providing complete information, not just Carbon footprint - Transparency goes a long way: location of manufacturing, real accountability - Structured data endpoint Opportunity: - Can become selection criteria at same price/performance level - Access to whole market: we are all supplying to enterprises at some point 24 PremDay 2025
25. “ 25 Slide Library | Confidential How are we supposed to reduce our Carbon Footprint?
26. Member of Specialization + Density = nightmare 26 PremDay 2025
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32. Member of Ultimate goal Source: ec.europa.eu / Eurostats In the European Union (EU) in 2022, the industry sector accounted for 25.1 % of the final energy consumption, which made it the third highest consumer, after transport (31.0 %) and households (26.9 %). 32 PremDay 2025
33. Member of Questions? PremDay 2025 33