by Peter Miller, sales and business development manager, ETB Technologies
Scotland is fast becoming one of the UK’s data centre hotspots. When the ILI Group announced its plan for The Stoics, three hyperscale “green” data centres in Fife, East Ayrshire and North Lanarkshire, it marked a £15 billion investment in digital infrastructure designed to power AI, cloud and enterprise computing for decades to come.
The announcement was clear – these new data centres have sustainability at their core. References to circular construction, low-carbon materials and heat recovery systems all signal that the development’s environmental impact is a core strategic consideration.
But, as data demand drives appetite for developments just like The Stoics, the question lingers – what makes a data centre truly sustainable?
Moving beyond energy to tackle the hidden hardware footprint
Data centre sustainability discussions usually focus on renewable power and advanced cooling. And for good reason. Board-level conversations now routinely include how to ensure continuous power supply to data centres, mitigations around rising energy costs and ways to reduce emissions to meet ESG targets. Water for cooling is also a key consideration, with strength of supply and the existing demand from the surrounding area playing an important role. These issues are vital, yet they overlook a major source of emissions: the embodied carbon locked into hardware manufacturing.
According to the World Bank, in 2022 alone, the equivalent of 33 million tonnes of CO2 was emitted during the manufacturing of network equipment – a figure dwarfed by PCs (65 million) and smartphones (57 million). Every refresh cycle, typically every three to five years, adds another wave of emissions through extraction, assembly and shipping.
In other words, we’re sweating over the carbon output of running machines, but not questioning the carbon cost of acquiring them in the first place.
For hyperscale projects like The Stoics, there are thousands of racks, and millions of components, each representing both financial spend and environmental impact. Extending the useful life of components could slash emissions and strengthen circular-economy credentials from day one.
An equally important outcome of refurbishment is the dramatic reduction in technology sent to landfill. By extending the usable life of servers, storage arrays and networking equipment, operators prevent large volumes of electronic waste from entering the waste stream. Much of this contains toxic materials and rare metals that are difficult to recover. This not only conserves valuable resources but also supports national and international e-waste reduction goals, reinforcing a genuine commitment to circularity.
What we really mean by refurbished technology
Refurbishment in 2025 isn’t a gamble on used kit. Certified refurbished specialists now apply detailed diagnostics, replace or upgrade components, update firmware and test to enterprise standards.
Modern testing regimes and robust warranties mean refurbished technology, purchased from a trusted, reliable supplier, match up favourably with new technology. Major cloud providers, including AWS and Google, already operate large-scale refurbishment programmes to recover and redeploy components within their fleets.
Performance parity, full traceability and reduced cost now outweigh any outdated snobbery around refurbished technology, especially when sustainability metrics and investor expectations demand quantifiable progress on carbon reduction – something that is even more in focus when it comes to the public sector.
In Case You Missed It:
The result is hardware that performs comparably to new equipment at a 30 – 50 per cent lower cost. For ILI Group’s vision of more sustainable facilities, integrating such systems could reduce upfront embodied carbon and provide flexibility against future supply-chain shocks.
Lifecycle assessments suggest reusing one enterprise server can save roughly one tonne of CO₂e. Multiplied across a hyperscale estate, the impact becomes enormous.
Increasingly, large data centre projects, like The Stoics, are positioning themselves as a showcase for sustainable construction and renewable-powered operation. With direct access to Scotland’s abundant wind and hydro resources and a naturally cool climate, hyper scale data centres could achieve world-class energy efficiency – not to mention making significant contributions to the nation’s economic prosperity. Yet true sustainability requires a whole-life approach. Embedding refurbishment and reuse strategies into procurement from the outset would push the project beyond “green power” toward genuine circular design.
