The report found that 57% of respondents believe efficiency and sustainability will be highly important competitive differentiators in three years, a large increase from the current reading of 26%.
43% of respondents said they have strategic sustainability initiatives and efficiency improvements for their infrastructure.
The report includes insights from a survey of over 800 data centre service providers around the globe about their perspectives on sustainability and the strategic initiatives they are either deploying or may be using in the future.
It also addresses what is required to achieve sustainability measures for colocation providers.
"The report from 451 Research provides a snapshot of the influence efficiency and sustainability has on the colocation market," said Mark Bidinger, President of the Cloud & Service Provider Segment, Schneider Electric.
"Multi-tenant data centre operators can use it as a tool to assess gaps in resources and adoption, as well as the risks of not taking action."
The report revealed that 97% of providers have between a few or all of their customers looking for contractual commitments to sustainable practices.
"Data centre efficiency and sustainability is already a major topic in the datacentre sector, and our survey shows it is high on the priority list for MTDC service providers worldwide,” said Daniel Bizo, senior research analyst with 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
"Ultimately, expectations from customers, regulators and the public at large will only become more pressing as the effects of climate change become more pronounced.
“As global datacentre infrastructure grows in response to higher demand for digital services, so does interest in its considerable environmental impact."
56% of those surveyed said they monitor their operational systems and the remaining said they do not generate reports to track these metrics (utilisation, energy consumption, PUE, etc.). In addition, roughly one-third track carbon intensity at all sites.
451 Research conducted surveys with IT decision makers who hold functional responsibilities over their data centre sustainability strategies within colocation and wholesale data centres.
Respondents were based in the US, China, India, Australia, France, the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Demark, and more.
The companies ranged in size of 10 to 10,000+ employees, and with data centre capacity from under 1MW to more than 150MW.
