Circular Economy of Google Data - Once is Never Enough

Maybe you’re one of the less than one percent of Google employees authorized to ever to set foot into a data center. If so, you’ll first get your identity verified at the campus security gate, then undergo security screening at building reception, then pass through a secure exterior corridor, and ultimately go through a multifactor access control process involving lenticular badges and biometrics.

Finally on the “floor,” you’ll find yourself surrounded by an ocean of servers and miles of fiber optics, all humming along under a glow of blue light. This data center in Lenoir, North Carolina, and Google’s 13 other data centers around the globe, are the true beating heart of the digital age, and they’re also the star of Google’s quest to move to a new type of economy—the circular economy.

Our data center in Eemshaven, the Netherlands.

Today’s economy is linear: it has a beginning and an end. Companies dig up materials, turn those materials into a product, and then ship that product to an end user who eventually tosses it in the trash. But that system has to change. In 2017, global demand for resources was roughly 1.7 times what the Earth can support in one year, which means the linear economy model will soon slam into the edge of its physical limits.

A circular economy model is restorative and regenerative by design. Products, components and materials in a circular economy are quite literally made to be made again—they are created to be easily refurbished, repaired, reused and recycled. “A strong circular economy begins at the design stage,” explains Chris Adam, Google Supply Chain Manager. “The challenge is to design products and technology with regeneration in mind right from the beginning, without ever sacrificing performance.” 

Google’s long-standing push to get more out of every element in its data centers has been the focus of a partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a nonprofit that helps companies around the world adopt circular economy practices and experience the enormous benefits. "Circular economy principles present the digital industry, as all sectors, with a raft of new opportunities for resilient growth decoupled from resource constraints," explained Ian Banks at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Google chose their data centers—facilities responsible for powering products like Search, Gmail and YouTube for billions of people 24/7—as the subject of their analysis with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation team because data centers generally tend to be material intensive. They are like small cities filled with servers, drives, routers and other components that, due to massive use and the rapid pace of technological change, once had relatively short and finite life spans. Every efficiency in that environment has the potential to yield a huge positive impact. It was a perfect place to zoom in and quantify the many initiatives underway.

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