2025 ESG Report: Data centre environmental impact

Author: Carly Weller

Structure Research has released its latest 2025 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report, providing an in-depth look at the environmental footprint of data centre providers and hyperscale platforms.

The report captures sustainability metrics from 26 data centre operators and nine hyperscale cloud platforms, offering a unique snapshot into carbon emissions, energy consumption and water usage across the global infrastructure ecosystem.

The 2025 ESG Report finds that while data centre energy usage continues to rise – now accounting for more than 1.1% of global energy consumption – average carbon emissions per unit of energy consumed are trending downwards, driven by the growing adoption of renewable and carbon-free energy sources. Total energy usage increased from 178.5TWh in 2019 to 310.6TWh in 2024, while emissions intensity fell from 366.9mtCO2e/GWh to 312.7mtCO2e/GWh over the same period.

“Data centres are foundational to the modern digital economy, and that means they carry a growing environmental responsibility,” says Philbert Shih, Managing Director of Structure Research. “What this report shows is that while energy consumption continues to climb, providers are making meaningful progress in efficiency and renewable adoption. The industry is clearly moving in the right direction – but transparency and accountability will be critical as sustainability expectations evolve.”

Sustainability progress amid rising demand

· Energy usage by ESG Leaders grew 17.9% over the last five years, while renewable energy consumption increased by 27.9%.

· Hyperscalers now use renewable sources for approximately 91% of their total energy needs; data centre providers reached 62%.

· Carbon-free energy, including nuclear, is emerging as a key part of the data centre energy mix as power constraints grow in Tier 1 markets.

PUE and water efficiency improvements

· Average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) for data centre providers declined from 1.44 in 2019 to 1.38 in 2024, while hyperscale PUEs remained at an industry-leading 1.22.

· Data centre water consumption increased by 9.6% over five years, driven by demand for liquid cooling to support AI workloads and higher rack densities.

The report introduces the Structure Research Sustainability Quadrant (SRSQ), a benchmark framework ranking providers based on transparency, operational efficiency and renewable energy usage. The SRSQ aims to encourage better reporting standards and highlight leaders in environmental performance.

Structure Research’s analysis found that ESG reporting across the sector is becoming more common, though significant variation remains in the scope and depth of disclosures. The report emphasises the importance of transparency in environmental reporting and urges providers to include more granular, region-specific data in future disclosures.

The 2025 ESG Report is a tool for hyperscalers, colocation providers, enterprises and policymakers seeking to understand the environmental implications of data centre growth and how industry leaders are responding.