TCO Certified helps you take environmental and social responsibility when storing your data. While the focus for sustainability in data centers often lies on energy, the issue is much broader and should include other aspects like social responsibility, circularity, and harmful substances.

Whether you have your own data center or outsource the service, all data centers house servers, storage and networking equipment that are linked to both environmental and social sustainability risks throughout the life cycle:

  • Sufficient environmental considerations are often lacking in factories.
  • Social responsibility issues such as excessive working hours, low wages, health and safety and forced labor occur throughout the supply chain.
  • Hazardous substances are often used in products and in manufacturing processes.
  • IT-products include conflict minerals and cobalt, which to a large extent are mined in unsustainable ways, by vulnerable workers including children, whose basic human rights are not protected.

TCO Certified covers three key components of data centers

Network equipment

Enables communication between various network devices.

Data storage

Supplies data storage services to clients and devices.

Servers

Manages network resources and provides services for client devices.

And of course, there is the energy issue which indeed is a big challenge. Every year, data centers around the world use huge amounts of energy and this is forcasted to grow. Even though change is underway, many of the world’s data centers are currently powered by fossil energy, which means that our high demand on data usage directly contributes to the climate crisis.

Criteria in TCO Certified cover social and environmental sustainability throughout the product’s life cycle. Certified products must be energy efficient, and meet strict requirements on hazardous substances, circularity, socially responsible manufacturing, environmentally responsible manufacturing, and much more. All criteria apply globally and are mandatory, tough, and independently verified.

Two ways of storing data responsibly with TCO Certified

Asking for certified products helps drive industry progress and ensures availability of more sustainable IT products on the market. IT brands often apply for certification as a direct response to purchaser requests. When you include TCO Certified in tenders, you help set this process in motion.

  • If your organization runs its own data center: Ask for certified products when you purchase servers, storage products and networking equipment.
  • If you’re using a cloud based solution: Demand that servers, storage products and networking equipment in the data center is certified according to TCO Certified.
Practical tips for using TCO Certified

Our guide helps you take the next step in sustainable procurement.

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