Efficient and Sustainable: LRZ Environmental Management Certified According to EMAS Standard
Technologie:Energy-efficiency
Forschungsbereich:Future Computing
Excellent performance in the areas of efficient use of electricity and water: In addition to the amount of energy that the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) consumes to operate its IT resources, it requires 23 per cent for cooling. This gives the data centre a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.23, compared to an average of 1.46 in German data centres. The LRZ is similarly economical with water: for one kilowatt-hour (kWh) of cooling output, only 2.3 litres are used in a closed-loop system. A sophisticated water cooling infrastructure in the compute building also eliminates the need for harmful antifreeze chemicals. “The energy measures at LRZ are very well developed,” states the audit report, which assessed the Garching data centre for the first time according to the demanding European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and forms the basis for its validation as a sustainable organisation. Over the past year, the LRZ systematically organised and documented all sustainability-related measures across various areas of work.
Transparency and Sustainability in Research
Together with LRZ staff and leaders from all departments and work areas, the environmental management officers—sustainability specialist Sophia Kranz and environmental process engineer Dr. Hiren Gandhi—spent more than a year compiling information and key figures related to the ecological impacts of LRZ activities. For the validation, additional measuring devices were installed, applicable regulations and laws were reviewed, and—most importantly—existing processes were reconsidered.
Since 2012, the LRZ has used only electricity from renewable sources, and since its foundation, it has evaluated strategies for energy-efficient data centre operations. In cooperation with technology partners, it developed and continuously improved a direct high-temperature hot-water cooling system for high-performance systems. Adjustments to the cooling infrastructure of the computing building ensure that cooling water no longer needs to be treated with chemical antifreeze. Energy-conscious planning of computing jobs as well as optimisation of scientific codes and algorithms also improve the energy balance. These efforts are supported by employee ideas—the suggested electric vehicles for the car fleet or the solar panel system on the roof.
With its EMAS certificate—and, even more importantly, the accompanying environmental statement, which explains the measures and documents consumption figures—the LRZ offers transparency to the scientific community and to funding agencies in Germany and Europe, which increasingly require evidence of sustainability and resource-efficient project execution.
Efficient Computing and Use of Waste Heat
In addition, the Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG), which came into effect at the end of 2023, requires larger data centres to adhere to standards relating to energy efficiency, waste heat usage, the use of electricity from renewable sources, and transparency about their sustainability. The background is the rapidly increasing electricity demand of IT infrastructures, as well as the realisation that waste heat from computing systems can be used cost-effectively for heating or by heat-intensive facilities such as swimming pools or greenhouses.
According to the EnEfG, existing data centres must comply with increasingly strict requirements. By 2030, for example, a maximum PUE value of 1.3 is mandated; at least 15 percent of waste heat must be reused; and only electricity from renewable sources may be used. The LRZ’s environmental statement shows that it already meets most of these legal requirements, and work is underway on the remaining ones—such as supplying heat to neighbouring facilities on the research campus.
Quotes:
“Ideas for operating our data centre efficiently are a deeply ingrained part of the LRZ DNA. For decades, we have been researching how to make data center operations more efficient. After all, the money we save on electricity and cooling can be invested in computing performance for science. The calls for electric vehicles in our fleet, for the use of electricity from renewable sources, for waste separation, and for many other measures to minimise environmental impact—these have always come primarily from LRZ employees, who bring forward good ideas and initiatives to use resources more sustainably in everyday operations. With EMAS, we have systematised these goals and developed a comprehensive environmental management system as well as a sustainability strategy for the LRZ from a wide range of individual measures. The EMAS audit confirmed that our ideas and their implementation are excellent.”
Prof. Helmut Reiser, Deputy Director of the LRZ
“Because of their innovative computing resources, validating a high-performance and supercomputing data centre is always exciting. The LRZ engages deeply with energy-related topics; its efficiency measures are very well developed, and the resulting metrics are accordingly outstanding.”
Bernhard Schwager, Environmental Verifier, Stuttgart
“Sustainability is anchored in many areas of the agenda of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, and we now aim to give the topic even greater strategic weight. The LRZ’s environmental report is a valuable support in this: it provides us with the transparency needed to assess and place demands on the data centre as the LMU’s IT and digitisation partner from an ecological perspective. It also helps researchers better evaluate and document the environmental impacts of their computing projects.”
Prof. Dr. Ralf Ludwig, Chief Sustainability Officer of LMU and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Geosciences
The TUM Sustainable Futures Strategy 2030 sets the framework for our university’s sustainability goals. The LRZ supports these goals through its environmental reporting and demonstrates a responsible approach to digital infrastructures.”
Prof. Werner Lang, Vice President for Sustainable Transformation and Chair of Energy-Efficient and Sustainable Design and Building, TUM