Fujitsu Australia is a leading service provider of business and information and communications technology solutions. As one of the largest ICT companies in the Australian marketplace, Fujitsu partners with customers to consult, design, build, operate and support business solutions.

Data centres are facilities that house a large amount of powerful, networked computer servers that store, process and distribute data. Data centres have fast become the lifeblood of the digital conomy with cloud storage becoming the norm as economies around the world continue to decentralise as the adoption of smart technology continues apace. As demand increases for flexible ICT solutions, GHG emissions from data centres could continue to increase if the status quo remains and unless the industry takes immediate action.

With an outdated and easily manipulated system traditionally used for measuring the energy efficiency of data centres – the Power Usage Effectiveness rating (PUE) – Fujitsu Australia sought to collaborate with the NSW Government and other industry representatives to help bring about greater transparency and accountability in relation to measuring the power consumption and energy efficiency of data centres in Australia.

The result of the three-year collaboration between Fujitsu Australia, industry and government is the National Australian Built Environment Rating System for Data Centres (NABERS for DC). In a world-first, the NABERS for DC process provides a way for PUE to be externally validated by an independent government assessor. What NABERS for DC provides is an easily understood, common language for the ICT industry – a star rating system with one being poor and six the highest – to help drive greater efficiency in the industry while also providing customers with a transparent and easily comparable rating system.

In addition to driving change across the industry, Fujitsu has also led the industry in gaining NABERS for DC accreditation and has used the process to drive innovation in its data centre business. The process has also seen a step-change in Fujitsu’s internal culture change where sustainability is no longer seen as a compliance issue or an onerous task, but as a chance to add value to customers and differentiate Fujitsu Australia from competitors.

In developing the NABERS for DC rating tool, Fujitsu Australia worked as part of a technical working group which spent three years devising an appropriate methodology. This was then approved by a national steering committee coordinated by OEH. This process involved extensive collaboration with industry experts from Next DC, Interactive, state and federal governments, National Australia Bank, IBM, Telstra and The Australian Information Industry Association.

In addition to playing a leading role in the development of the NABERS for DC framework, Fujitsu has demonstrated its commitment to the NABERS for DC rating scheme publicly by having the first facility in Australia and the first full data centre portfolio – all six facilities – NABERS for DC assessed.

The NABERS for DC initiative has led to Fujitsu’s data centres saving 27 Gigawatt hours of electricity, avoiding 24 million kilograms of GHG emissions and operating 27% more efficiently than the market average. While the NSW Government have this year, mandated that all data centres contracted for use should achieve a NABERS rating of 4.5 out of 6.

With a range of State and Federal Government agencies, including Australia Post and the entire NSW Government, now mandating that data centre suppliers must have a NABERS for DC rating, the NABERS for DC initiative is set to play an important role in reducing Australia’s GHG emissions as Australia works towards its Paris Agreement commitments.

For more information about Fujitsu Australia go to fujitsu.com/au