Environment
Managing our environmental impact every step of the way
As a global infrastructure provider, we build our own servers and data centers. This means we have been able to integrate sustainability in our model and practices for over 20 years: We integrated our industrial model in 2002 to better control our direct impacts and have been using our proprietary water-cooling technology since 2003 to optimize the use of energy of our servers”. This allows us to operate our datacenters with no air conditioning, therefore reducing our energy consumption and we design our servers to facilitate the refurbishing of their components.
Today, digital has a central and growing place in our professional and personal lives. Therefore, the growth of cloud is constantly accelerating to accompany the digitalization of all our activities. In line with our values and DNA, we position ourselves at the forefront of sustainable innovation. We want to contribute to the overall transformation of the sector with more sustainable practices and usages, by minimizing the impact linked to the operation of our data centers and usage of our severs and by being cautious with our use of resources.
In Europe, digital technology today accounts for 2% to 3% of all electricity consumption, nearly half of which is accounted for by datacenters1. With the explosion of digital, and the AI revolution, the share of digital technology in carbon emissions is expected to double or even triple by 2030.
1. IAE 2024
Being transparent
We disassemble 100% of our servers, and strictly test their components to give them a second life, either in circuit or through external recycling and valorization. The use of refurbished components in our servers allows us to prolong their lifetime with an average duration of 4.5 years and up to 9 years; and thus to avoid some manufacturing carbon emissions. Furthermore, 27 of our datacenters are rehabilitated buildings.
By being transparent on our Environmental targets and performance, we aim at empowering our customers and partners to further scale the full potential of a sustainable cloud, as well as accompany the best practices from an operational standpoint. While positioning ourselves at the forefront of this global challenge for the cloud industry, we contribute to the most significant initiatives and gather the driving forces of our ecosystem.
As part of our commitments, we communicate on our overall environmental impact, not only in terms of greenhouse gases emissions, but also energy, water, waste, transportation management and we share our carbon footprint since 2017.
We are also ISO50001 certified and participate in the European Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency in Data Centre.
Key environmental indicators 2025
Our indicators are in line with the ISO 30134-2, ISO 30134-3, ISO 30134-8 and ISO 30134-9 standards.
Power Usage Effectiveness
It measures the efficiency of our energy consumption. The closest to 1, the better.
Our PUE is measured and audited over 12 months. Its calculation coverage rate stands at 88% in the datacenters we own and operate which makes it accurate and reliable.
Water Usage Effectiveness
It measures the efficiency of our water consumption. The closest to 0, the better.
Carbon Usage Effectiveness
It measures the emissions of our datacenter operations (our direct emissions, and indirect emissions due to electricity consumption). The closest to 0, the better.
Renewable Energy Factor
REF measures the rate of renewable energy in our datacenters.
Reused components ratio
This ratio states that for 100 components, 17 are refurbished ones.
Being committed
Reducing emissions
OVHcloud commits to reduce scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 73.4% (compared to 2022) by 2025 and scope 3 emissions by 52% (per unit of value added compared with 2022) by 2030.