Environmental Leadership
Responsible sustainability
Scaleway is committed to limiting the environmental impact of the cloud, in line with parent company iliad Group's SBTi-validated objective to reduce scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions by 90% by 2050 (vs. 2022). We innovate constantly to take our sector to new levels of sustainability, by offering responsible products and services which limit our clients' impact on the planet.
Impact Report
Every year, Scaleway reports transparently on key ESG indicators, covering our commitments to our People, to the Environment and to Society at large. Download our latest report to discover key indicators such as PUE+WUE (power and water usage effectiveness), CO2eq emissions (scopes 1, 2 & 3), hardware reuse, customer satisfaction ratings and staff diversity.
Scaleway's environmental commitments
Optimizing energy
Scaleway strives to use as little energy as possible. Our PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) was 1.37 in 2023, well below the industry average (1.55) and with a minimum of 1.16. This minimum is obtained by DC5, one of Europe's most sustainable data centers (more details below). Most of our workloads are handled by French data centers. Around 90% of electricity in France comes from low-carbon sources (vs. 22% in Ireland, for example). And we buy renewable energy to compensate for any fossil fuel energy usage, in France, Amsterdam or Poland data centers (Guarantee of Origin).
Minimizing water consumption
Whereas many cloud providers use millions of cubic meters of water in cooling towers to keep their servers from overheating, Scaleway is firmly opposed to this type of practice. This is one of the reasons our French data centers consumed only 4451m3 of water in 2022, or the equivalent of 37 French households.
Defending the circular economy
With hardware representing three quarters of global digital emissions, Scaleway has a role to play in reducing the impact of its IT equipment. This is why 80% of our servers' components are reused, why we work to prolong their lifespans by up to 10 years (compared with 4-5 for the rest of the sector), and why Transformers and Nursery, our main hardware reconditioning programs, were industrialized in 2023.
Measurable excellence
Scaleway's Environmental Impact Calculator is the most far-reaching of the entire cloud sector, covering carbon emissions (scopes 1, 2 & 3), individualized hardware impacts and water consumption. More information here. Scaleway also advises French national ecological agency ADEME on key referentials like PCR Cloud; EcoVadis granted Scaleway its Gold Medal early 2024, putting us in the top 5% of its most sustainable companies; and the Green Web Foundation has reconfirmed our website is "Hosted Green".
Data centers: key indicators for 2023
| Data center | PUE | WUE | Power source | Cooling system |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DC2 PAR1 Paris | 1.460 | 0.014 | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | Chilled water system |
| DC3 PAR1 Paris | 1.370 | 0.001 | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | Indirect free cooling with a closed-circuit high-temperature chilled water system |
| DC4 Paris | 1.440 | 0 | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | EC (direct) with variable compressor (VRV) |
| DC5 PAR2 Paris | 1.16 | 0.214 | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | Direct free cooling with adiabatic cooling |
| AMS1 Amsterdam | 1.380 | 0.850 | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | EC with hot water system in a closed circuit |
| AMS2 Amsterdam | 1.40 | NA | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | NA |
| AMS3 Amsterdam | 1.20 | NA | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | NA |
| WAW1 Warsaw | 1.510 | NA | 100% wind - Guarantee of origin (GO) | Free-cooling, free-chilling & immersion systems |
| WAW2 Warsaw | 1.320 | NA | 100% wind - Guarantee of origin (GO) | Free-cooling, free-chilling, immersion systems & air conditioning |
| WAW3 Warsaw | 1.430 | NA | 100% wind - Guarantee of origin (GO) | Free-cooling, free-chilling & immersion systems |
Why shift to Green IT?
For Scaleway, sustainability counts across the whole stack, from data centers to hardware and from software to websites. And with the digital sector representing 4% of global emissions, there's never been a better time for engineers and developers to act. Our guide to Green IT explains how to reduce your IT infrastructure's impact in all these aspects, with exclusive figures, solutions and case studies.