Sustainability needs a seat at the table – not once decisions have been made, but while they are being shaped.
That was one of the topics when dcently co-founders Cecilia Hjertzell and Johanna Flood joined Joshua Feinberg on the Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast — episode 199, out today.
And it's exactly why we started dcently. Too much of the industry's sustainability conversation happens after the decisions that matter have already been taken: the site is chosen, the design is locked, the equipment is ordered. We believe the industry needs a neutral place where operators, suppliers, customers, investors, municipalities and researchers shape those decisions together — based on evidence rather than claims.
"Sustainability needs a seat at the table – not once decisions have been made, but while they are being shaped."
What we talked about
- Why operational metrics like PUE, WUE and CUE leave most of a data center's real ESG picture unreported — and where the impact actually sits: in the supply chain.
- The water cost of the hardware itself. A single UPS can carry a water footprint of roughly 40 swimming pools, before a facility has served its first IT load.
- The resource squeeze in the Nordics, where hydropower carries a large share of Sweden's energy mix — and peak cooling demand arrives exactly when water levels are at their lowest.
- The EU greenwashing rules taking effect on 27 September, and why terms like "green", "sustainable" or "100% fossil-free" now need evidence behind them.
- The Digital Product Passport, and what full supply-chain transparency will mean for procurement of steel- and battery-based products in the EU.
- Why a sustainability professional belongs beside the CTO in client and vendor meetings — catching expensive mistakes before they are designed in.
- Engaging municipalities early, to surface real concerns and design around them — before development decisions are already made.
The conversation also looked forward: a wave of EU regulation and increasingly visible climate impacts are set to reshape public opinion over the next 12–24 months. The companies that thrive will be the ones that can substantiate every claim they make — and that involve sustainability expertise early, in commercial conversations as much as technical ones.
That is the work we are doing with the dcently Sustainability Pulse and the dcently ESG Playbook: gathering real perspectives from across the data center ecosystem, and turning them into practical guidance the industry can actually use.