Combining Iceland’s natural renewable energy sources with carbon offsetting ensures data centre operations are truly sustainable.
Verne, a provider of sustainable data centre solutions for high intensity computing, and VAXA, a sustainable biotech food and nutrition producer, has announced a partnership enabling Verne to offset its residual carbon emissions in Iceland, furthering its long-term sustainability goals and commitment to combatting greenwashing in the data centre industry.
Even though Verne’s infrastructure in Iceland is powered by 100% renewable energy, it still has a small carbon footprint. In 2021, it powered data centre infrastructure and compute that was equivalent to over 10,000 homes’ electricity usage for the year, generating a carbon footprint of 574 tCO2e – equivalent to 70 homes’ annual energy usage.
As part of the company’s efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its operations even further, Verne will work with VAXA to offset its residual Scope 1, 2 and 3 Greenhouse Gas Emissions and provide customers with the world’s most sustainable digital infrastructure.
VAXA is powering the circular economy in Iceland, with a focus on environmentally friendly, sustainable practices that, like Verne’s own facilities, utilise the country’s geothermal power.
VAXA’s ground-breaking technology platform leverages the clean, natural outputs of a geothermal plant to grow microalgae indoors, completely independent of the weather conditions. These microalgae, a type known as spirulina, is a highly sustainable food product with a nutritional profile similar to beef.
“Sustainability is at the heart of our business, and we’re always looking for ways to make a positive impact,” said Crystal Riedemann, VP Business Development at VAXA. “Partnering with Verne, a like-minded company that has also prioritised sustainability from day one, just made sense, and we’re delighted to be joining them in their mission to end greenwashing in the data centre industry.”
Dominic Ward, CEO, Verne, said: “We are incredibly excited to be partnering with VAXA, a highly innovative company that shares our own values and commitment to sustainability and the circular economy. As the only country powered by 100% renewable energy resources, Iceland is the most sustainable location on earth for data centres. But even still, operations produce emissions.
“The data centre industry has a responsibility to be transparent when it comes to sustainability reporting and show what it’s doing to minimise its impact on the planet; that’s why we publish our emissions data and have decided to partner with VAXA, a true sustainability pioneer, to offset our carbon emissions in Iceland,” added Ward.
