(Credit: Pixabay)Digital power company Akamai Technologies made significant advancements in 2021 in renewable energy use, energy efficiency, reducing emissions from its platform use as it strives to reach sustainability goals by 2030. More than 50% of the Akamai Intelligent Edge Platform was powered by renewable energy last year. The company says 20% of that was created by its three renewable energy projects, including wind farms in Texas and Illinois and a solar array in Virginia.
The company has five targeted goals by 2030, including using 100% renewable energy, a 50% more energy efficient platform, 100% platform emissions mitigation, responsible supply chain management and a worldwide 100% electronic waste recycling program. Akamai provided an update on its progress with its 2021 sustainability report.
Some of the accomplishments according to the company, included using 170 renewable data centers in 2021, three virtual power purchase agreements in the United States and attaining 47% of its platform emissions goal.
This comes as the technology industry continues to play a bigger role in advancing sustainability objectives. Cloud computing alone is seen as a way to reduce up to 1 billion tons of emissions, according to International Data Corporation.
Akamai is adding to its renewable efforts with another wind farm in Texas, the Enel Green Power Azure Sky project, which is set to be operational this year.
The company’s plan to use a more energy efficient platform also made strides last year. Akamai says since making the target in 2021 its network is 28% more power efficient per unit of capacity, despite an increase of use by 60%.
In terms of emissions, the company plans to mitigate all of its platform greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Akamai says this is challenging because its operations are distributed in more than 830 cities and power sources aren’t always under its direct operational control.
Akamai says it is working with data center partners, where power needs are significant, and has joined the Race to Zero program through the Global Citizen Live campaign as well as becoming a founding member of Greening of Streaming to address the impact of energy in the streaming industry.
The company also launched a supply chain responsibility program in 2021, including a focus on environmental sustainability. Akamai says it wants to take collective action seriously in its approach to the supply chain by working closely and engaging with suppliers.
Akamai says last year it recycled all of its electronic waste, and ships all e-waste, including servers, to certified facilities in the United States for appropriate processing. The company says it accounts for management of toxic materials, security of user data and responsible shipping while recycling e-waste. The company also is looking into adding recycling facilities closer to the original points of e-waste.
