As the data centre industry works to reduce its environmental impact, much of the focus has been on power consumption and operational emissions. However, a significant yet often overlooked contributor to carbon emissions in this sector is the concrete used in construction. Hyperscale giants such as AWS, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have pointed out in an open letter that materials commonly used in data centre buildings account for 23% of global carbon emissions, with concrete alone responsible for 11%. Concrete production, particularly the manufacture of Portland cement, is a major source of CO2 emissions, contributing to approximately 8% of global emissions.

Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technologies, emphasizes the massive scale of concrete use in construction and its detrimental environmental impact. He explains that while concrete is essential in building infrastructure, traditional methods of production have made it highly emissions-intensive. Eco Material Technologies is taking action by repurposing waste materials, especially fly ash from the power sector, to replace highly polluting cement in concrete mixtures. This innovative approach aims to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete used in data centres and other infrastructure projects.

Data centre operators are facing increasing pressure to meet sustainability goals, and concrete emissions are a significant challenge. Quasha states, "Data centres have two big emissions problems: power and embedded emissions from construction, with concrete being the largest contributor." The response from leading tech companies has been encouraging, with some like Meta actively testing advanced materials to find optimal concrete mix designs for their data centres. This hands-on approach signals a shift in the industry, where developers and contractors traditionally paid little attention to the environmental impact of concrete specifications.

Eco Material Technologies offers a variety of solutions to help reduce emissions in data centre construction. Their entry-level approach involves using traditional supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) to achieve a 20-25% reduction in emissions. For more significant savings, their advanced product, PozzoSlag, can replace 50-60% of traditional cement, effectively doubling emissions reductions while remaining cost-neutral. These solutions are already making a difference beyond data centres, with Eco Material’s materials being used in major infrastructure projects like Samsung’s semiconductor facilities in Texas, SpaceX’s launch platforms, and TSMC’s chip factories in Arizona.

Quasha estimates that Eco Material Technologies' products are used in over half of the data centres built in the US, with notable installations including AWS’s facility in Jackson, Mississippi, Google’s data centre in Kansas City, and Tech Data Logistics’s site in Fontana, California. In the Northern US region alone, the company claims it has helped prevent the emission of 80,000 metric tons of CO2 from data centre construction in the past year. With the market for green construction materials expanding rapidly, this number is expected to grow.

Looking ahead, the data centre industry is moving towards greater transparency in emissions reporting, particularly through the use of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). These declarations provide detailed verification of emissions throughout the supply chain, similar to the way barcodes provide information about a product's origins. Quasha notes that this shift is underway, especially in the US, where EPDs are becoming more common. EPDs offer in-depth verification, detailing the embedded emissions of materials and their entire journey from production to installation.