Company insight
For a sustainable data centre, look north
As the banking sector embraces digital transformation, its use of on-premise or hosted data centres is growing rapidly, which has a major impact on energy use and carbon emissions. Jim Banks speaks to BNP Paribas CIB’s Constance Chalchat, head of company engagement and chief sustainability officer for global markets, Ricardo Jantarada, global head of data centre operations, as well as Gisli Kr, CCO of data centre infrastructure provider at atNorth, about the appeal of Iceland as the ideal home for data centre scalability, energy efficiency and connectivity.
ustainability now sits at the very heart of modern banking. Banks need to demonstrate impeccable green credentials for both their clients and regulators. A key element in that strategy is the move away from an in-house data centre estate to a hybrid computing environment. The question, however, is how that move impacts energy efficiency and carbon emissions.
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“Banks are enablers of the economy and as one of the biggest banks in the world it is our responsibility to foster impactful, positive change,” says Constance Chalchat, head of company engagement and chief sustainability officer for global markets at BNP Paribas CIB. “Our approach to sustainability is holistic. Globally, the evidence for climate change is driving a profound reassessment of risk.” “The vast majority of investors and lenders now recognise that climate risk is a financial risk,” Chalchat continues. “As a result, they are integrating ESG in the way they manage their portfolio. The financial industry has a critical and exemplary role to play – to foster, channel and accelerate the allocation of financial resources to finance positive business development, and to enable mitigation actions on negative impact sectors.” BNP, along with 42 other financial institutions, has joined the UN’s Net-Zero Banking Alliance. It must, therefore, implement measures to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, both in its own credit book and its investment activities. It has already committed to reducing its exposure to oil and gas exploration and production by 10%.
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As part of its own business operations, that commitment also means looking closely at its own energy consumption, in which data centres are a major component. “We have increased use of our electronic platforms and, to continually gain in operational efficiency, we are automating our processes and data is at the heart of our strategy,” says Chalchat. “But digitalisation has an environmental impact, as it adds up to an ever-increasing demand for electricity and rising carbon emissions.”
operations at BNP Paribas, takes up the story.
“First, we look at the adequate number of data centres we need to host our critical applications and where those data centres should be,” says Jantarada. “Secondly, we look at the physical characteristics and the IT resiliency of each of those data centres. Amongst those applications, we have our high-performance computing (HPC) server farms. Those applications are used to calculate our positions in the financial
“With the increased emphasis on digital transformation in the financial industry, organisations like BNP Paribas are taking the responsible deployment of digital infrastructure very seriously.”
Gisli Kr, atNorth
Chalchat also notes that data centres account for 3% of global electricity consumption. Digitalisation, for its part, produces 4% of all global greenhouse gas emissions – more than the entire civil aviation sector – and that is likely to double by 2025. Hence the bank’s efforts to not only support its clients’ transition to more sustainable business models, but also reduce the impact of its own operations.
The coolest place for data centres To reduce the impact of its own data centre operations, BNP Paribas CIB has looked north to Iceland, which is in many ways the promised land in terms of connectivity, the availability of renewable energy and low energy demand. Ricardo Jantarada, global head of data centre
markets and the risks associated with those, which is vital for the bank.” “They represent a great field for us to innovate and make our operations as energy-efficient and sustainable as possible,” adds Jantarada. “Back in 2018, we initiated a programme to refresh and expand our HPC server farm to a new site that would represent nearly 30% of our total capacity. This programme allowed us to not only reduce our electricity consumption by 50% for the same computation capacity, but also to ensure the carbon-free origin of this electricity. To make that possible, we relocated to what some call the coolest place on earth for data centres: Iceland.” To this end, BNP is working with atNorth, a specialist in sustainable Nordic
Future Banking /
www.nsbanking.com
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