Environmental Leadership
Responsible sustainability
Scaleway is committed to limiting the environmental impact of the cloud, in line with parent company Group iliad's carbon neutrality objectives (scopes 1 & 2 by 2035, scope 3 by 2050). 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 CSR 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
Preserving energyScaleway does its utmost to minimize the electricity consumption of its data centers. Our PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) was 1.398 in 2022, well below the industry average (1.55) and with a minimum of 1.15. This minimum is obtained by DC5, one of Europe's most sustainable data centers (more details below). Furthermore, Scaleway uses free cooling - a natural alternative to air conditioning, data centers' biggest energy consumption source - since 2012, and uses renewable energy only since 2017.
Minimizing water consumptionWhereas 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 3650m3 of water in 2022, or the equivalent of 30 French households.
Defending the circular economyWith 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, and why we work to prolong their lifespans by up to 10 years (compared with 3-4 for the rest of the sector). We comply with the European directive for e-waste, and lowered our waste by over 25% in 2022.
Promoting responsible cloud productsAs any green IT strategy must apply accross the entire value chain - from datacenters to hardware and to code - Scaleway is proud to be a pioneer in state-of-the-art cloud products like Serverless or Kubernetes. These notably only consume energy when the user needs them (vs. being 'always on'). Furthermore, we're working to provide our clients with precise and real-time measurements of their cloud products' emissions.
Data centers: key indicators 2022
| Data center | PUE | WUE | Power source | Cooling system |
| DC2 PAR1 Paris | 1.470 | 0.004 | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | Chilled water system |
| DC3 PAR1 Paris | 1.370 | 0.002 | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | Indirect free cooling with a closed-circuit high-temperature chilled water system |
| DC4 Paris | 1.410 | 0.004 | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | EC (direct) with variable compressor (VRV) |
| DC5 PAR2 Paris | 1.200 | 0.253 | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | Direct free cooling with adiabatic cooling |
| AMS1 Amsterdam | 1.320 | 0.760 | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | EC with hot water system in a closed circuit |
| AMS2 Amsterdam | 1.54 | NA | 100% wind or hydro - Guarantee of origin (GO) | NA |
| WAW1 Warsaw | 1.513 | NA | 100% wind - Guarantee of origin (GO) | Closed-loop chilled water system |
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.