How FU0 - Operating a Datacenter during 1 year - works
Introduction
DCFootprint estimates the environmental impacts of the life cycle of the Datacenter, depending on its generic description (based on the input parameters), before computing the share of impact of each other Functional Unit.
This Functional Unit “0” is not defined in the Ademe Cloud & Datacenter PCR, but we choosed to present this part as a functional unit as well to make it more explicit and usable independantly from the other Functional Units.
Version 1
This is the very first version of the methodology. It will evolve in the future, in order to be able to compare results between each model version. Please see the roadmap page.
To discuss about this methodology and how it should evolve, please look for an existing thread or open a new one, on community.dcfootprint.org.
Life Cycle coverage and respect of norms
| Environmental display - Life Cycle stage | ITU L.1410 - Life Cycle stage | Coverage in Ademe Cloud & DC PCR | Coverage in this Functional Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🏗️ Manufacturing | Raw materials extraction | Mandatory | ✅ see the methodology section for details |
| 🏗️ Manufacturing | Raw materials processing | Mandatory in every FU | ✅ see the methodology section for details |
| 🏗️ Manufacturing | IT equipment production - Component production | Included from FU2 to FU9 | ✅ see the methodology |
| 🏗️ Manufacturing | IT equipment production - Assembly | Included from FU2 to FU9 | ✅ see the methodology section for details |
| 🏗️ Manufacturing | IT equipment production - Support activities of IT equipment manufacturers | Included from FU2 to FU9 | Exluded, see the methodology section for details |
| 🏗️ Manufacturing | Support goods manufacturing | Mandatory in every FU | ✅ see the methodology section for details |
| 🏗️ Manufacturing | Construction of ICT specific site | Mandatory in every FU | ✅ see the methodology section for details |
| 🚚 Distribution | Transport of equipments / materials | Mandatory | Partially included, see the methodology section for details |
| 🔧 Installation | Installation of equipments / materials | Mandatory | Partially included, see the methodology section for details |
| ⚡ Use | IT equipment use | Included from FU2 to FU9 | ✅ see the methodology section for details |
| ⚡ Use | Support goods use | Mandatory | ✅ see the methodology section for details |
| ⚡ Use | Operator support activities | Mandatory | ✅ see the methodology section for details |
| ⚡ Use | Service provider support activites | Excluded | Excluded |
| 🗑️ End of life | Preparation of equipments / materials for reuse | Mandatory | Partially included, see the methodology section for details |
| 🗑️ End of life | Storage / Disassembly / Dismantling / Shreding | Mandatory | Partially included, see the methodology section for details |
Methodology
Calculation summary
| Perimeter | Impact factors - Manufacturing | Impact factors - Distribution | Impact factors - Use | Impact factors - End of life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ❄️⚡🔒 Technical environment | ✅ See Technical environment | ✅ See Technical environment | ✅ See Technical environment | ✅ See Technical environment |
| 🏢 Building architecture | ✅ See Building architecture | ✅ See Building architecture | ✅ See Building architecture | ✅ See Building architecture |
| 💻 IT equipments | ✅ See, see IT equipments | ❌ Excluded, see IT equipments | ✅ See, see IT equipments | ❌ Excluded, see IT equipments |
| 🌳🚗 Outdoor infrastructure | ❌ Not accounted, see Outdoor infrastructure | ❌ Not accounted, see Outdoor infrastructure | ❌ Not accounted, see Outdoor infrastructure | ❌ Not accounted, see Outdoor infrastructure |
🏢 Building Architecture
🏗️ Manufacturing
Formula
TotalBuildingManufacturingImpact = BuildingFloorTotalSurface * BuildingManufacturingImpactFactor
With:
BuildingFloorTotalSurface: the total floor area filled as paramater, in square meters (sqm)
BuildingManufacturingImpactFactor: see below
If the calculation is made on a defined time window (eg. 1 year), the final formula is:
BuildingManufacturingImpact(1 year) = TotalBuildingManufacturingImpact / BuildingLifetime
With:
BuildingLifetime: the projected lifetime of the building, in Years.
Impact factor
The impact factor applied in this version of the methodology is the following:
| Criteria | Value |
|---|---|
| ADPe | 2e-2 |
| AP | 1.09e1 |
| GWP | 2.99e3 |
| PM | 5.27e-5 |
It is defined in Product Category Rule (PCR) for cloud services and data centre IT hosting services, from ADEME, version 11/04/2025.
🚚 Transport
Formula
TotalBuildingTransportImpact = BuildingFloorTotalSurface * BuildingTransportImpactFactor
With:
BuildingFloorTotalSurface: the total floor area filled as paramater, in square meters (sqm)
BuildingTransportImpactFactor: see below
If the calculation is made on a defined time window (eg. 1 year), the final formula is:
BuildingTransportImpact(1 year) = TotalBuildingTransportImpact / BuildingLifetime
With:
BuildingLifetime: the projected lifetime of the building, in Years.
Impact factor
The impact factor applied in this version of the methodology is the following:
| Criteria | Value |
|---|---|
| ADPe | 1.87e-6 |
| AP | 3.01e-1 |
| GWP | 4.76e1 |
| PM | 2.45e-6 |
It is defined in Product Category Rule (PCR) for cloud services and data centre IT hosting services, from ADEME, version 11/04/2025.
⚡ Use
The building itself is not considered to generate any impacts on use phase. See the other categories of the inventory for use phase impacts.
🗑️ End Of Life
Formula
TotalBuildingEOLImpact = BuildingFloorTotalSurface * BuildingEOLImpactFactor
With:
BuildingFloorTotalSurface: the total floor area filled as paramater, in square meters (sqm)
BuildingEOLImpactFactor: see below
If the calculation is made on a defined time window (eg. 1 year), the final formula is:
BuildingEOLImpact(1 year) = TotalBuildingEOLImpact / BuildingLifetime
With:
BuildingLifetime: the projected lifetime of the building, in Years.
Impact factor
The impact factor applied in this version of the methodology is the following:
| Criteria | Value |
|---|---|
| ADPe | 2.43e-6 |
| AP | 3.73e-1 |
| GWP | 5.04e1 |
| PM | 2.31e-6 |
It is defined in Product Category Rule (PCR) for cloud services and data centre IT hosting services, from ADEME, version 11/04/2025.
❄️⚡🔒 Technical Environment
🏗️ Manufacturing
Formula
TotalTechEnvManufacturingImpact = TotalDCRentablePower * TechEnvManufacturingImpactFactor
With:
TotalDCRentablePower`: the total power that can be rented to power as a colocation service, in kW.
It is calculated with the formula:
TotalDCRentablePower = TotalDCPowerInstalled / PowerUsageEffectiveness
With:
TotalDCPowerInstalled : the total power capacity that can be rented to colocation customers, asked in the parameters (filled as MW, converted into kW)
PowerUsageEffectiveness : the PUE ratio asked in the parameters
TechEnvManufacturingImpactFactor: see below
If the calculation is made on a defined time window (eg. 1 year), the final formula is:
TechEnvManufacturingImpact(1 year) = TotalTechEnvManufacturingImpact / TechEnvLifetime
With:
TechEnvLifetime: the projected lifetime of the technical environment harware, in Years.
Impact factor
The impact factor applied in this version of the methodology is the following:
| Criteria | Value |
|---|---|
| ADPe | 6.03e-3 |
| AP | 7.68e-1 |
| GWP | 9.1e1 |
| PM | 5.01e-6 |
It is defined in Product Category Rule (PCR) for cloud services and data centre IT hosting services, from ADEME, version 11/04/2025.
🚚 Transport
Formula
TotalTechEnvTransportImpact = TotalDCRentablePower * TechEnvTransportImpactFactor
With:
TotalDCRentablePower`: the total power that can be rented to power as a colocation service, in kW.
It is calculated with the formula:
TotalDCRentablePower = TotalDCPowerInstalled / PowerUsageEffectiveness
With:
TotalDCPowerInstalled : the total power capacity that can be rented to colocation customers, asked in the parameters (filled as MW, converted into kW)
PowerUsageEffectiveness : the PUE ratio asked in the parameters
TechEnvTransportImpactFactor: see below
If the calculation is made on a defined time window (eg. 1 year), the final formula is:
TechEnvTransportImpact(1 year) = TotalTechEnvTransportImpact / TechEnvLifetime
With:
TechEnvLifetime: the projected lifetime of the technical environment harware, in Years. In version 1 of the methodology, technical environment hardware lifetime is considered the same as the building lifetime. This will be improved in the future versions. See the roadmap.
Impact factor
The impact factor applied in this version of the methodology is the following:
| Criteria | Value |
|---|---|
| ADPe | 3.81e-8 |
| AP | 6.14e-3 |
| GWP | 9.69e-1 |
| PM | 4.98e-8 |
It is defined in Product Category Rule (PCR) for cloud services and data centre IT hosting services, from ADEME, version 11/04/2025.
⚡ Use
Formula
The use phase of the lifecycle of a Datacenter considers all kind of energies consumed to enable the service to be provided.
Main power source
ElectricityConsumptionImpacts = TotalTechEnvYearlyElectricityConsumption * LocationBasedImapactFactors
With:
TotalTechEnvYearlyElectricityConsumption = TotalYearlyElectricityConsumption - (TotalYearlyElectricityConsumption / PowerUsageEffectiveness)
Backup power
Important
We consider that diesel/gas-oil based generators are use for backup purpose. For each of the hypothesis below, if you have a sourced, better assumption, please tell us on the community forum.
The formula is:
FuelImpacts = TotalDieselQuantityConsumed * WeightOfALiterOfDiesel * 1kgOfDieselImpactFactors
With:
TotalDieselQuantityConsumed = FuelConsumptionPerHour * Duration
With:
FuelConsumptionPerHour: The hourly consumption of fuel, based on the total power installed in the building. We consider that the total generators capacity is the same as the total power installed based on the grid.
It is calculated as:
FuelConsumptionPerHour = TotalDCPowerInstalled * SpecificFuelConsumption
SpecificFuelConsumption: the consumption ratio, in L/kWh (“Liter/hour”). It has been set to 0.3 in this early version of the methodology. This is mid-range hypothesis coming from https://waltpower.com/calculate-diesel-generator-fuel-consumption/.
WeightOfALiterOfDiesel: As the impact factor used is based on 1 kg of Diesel, we need to convert. The ratio is 0.84 kg/L, coming from https://whycalculator.com/diesel-fuel-weight-calculator/.
Duration: the duration of generators usage. The base hypothesis is that generators have to run at least 48 hours in a year, even if there is no incident on the main power source, for insurance reasons.
Impact factors
Electricity from main power source impact factor:
Warning
As there are few multi-criteria electricity consumption impact factors that are free of use, with a license allowing for public sharing, those are pretty old (2011). Next versions of the methodology should include newer impact factors.
| Criteria | France | USA | Spain |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADPe | 0.0000000485798 | 0.0800844 | 5.18326e-8 |
| AP | 0.000209809 | 0.0800844 | 0.000229486 |
| GWP | 0.0800844 | 0.672606 | 0.459194 |
| PM | 0.0800844 | 0.672606 | 3.00833e-8 |
It is based on ADEME’s Base Empreinte, have a loot at “Electricity grid mix”.
Diesel impact factor:
| Criteria | Value |
|---|---|
| ADPe | 9.94e-6 |
| AP | 5.92e-2 |
| GWP | 5.55 |
| PM | 1.26e-7 |
It is defined in Product Category Rule (PCR) for cloud services and data centre IT hosting services, from ADEME, version 11/04/2025.
🗑️ End Of Life
Formula
TotalTechEnvEOLImpact = TotalDCRentablePower * TechEnvEOLImpactFactor
With:
TotalDCRentablePower`: the total power that can be rented to power as a colocation service, in kW.
It is calculated with the formula:
TotalDCRentablePower = TotalDCPowerInstalled / PowerUsageEffectiveness
With:
TotalDCPowerInstalled : the total power capacity that can be rented to colocation customers, asked in the parameters (filled as MW, converted into kW)
PowerUsageEffectiveness : the PUE ratio asked in the parameters
TechEnvEOLImpactFactor: see below
If the calculation is made on a defined time window (eg. 1 year), the final formula is:
TechEnvEOLImpact(1 year) = TotalTechEnvEOLImpact / TechEnvLifetime
With:
TechEnvLifetime: the projected lifetime of the technical environment harware, in Years. In version 1 of the methodology, technical environment hardware lifetime is considered the same as the building lifetime. This will be improved in the future versions. See the roadmap.
Impact factors
The impact factor applied in this version of the methodology is the following:
| Criteria | Value |
|---|---|
| ADPe | 3.84e-5 |
| AP | 4.85e-2 |
| GWP | 5.09 |
| PM | 3.86e-7 |
It is defined in Product Category Rule (PCR) for cloud services and data centre IT hosting services, from ADEME, version 11/04/2025.
💻 IT Equipments
This functional unit considers a generic inventory, generated by a model, described in this section of the documentation.
Important
To use DCFootprint results as a help for an actual Datacenter footprint estimation, you need to specialize this part according to the final use and context of the Datacenter. eg. if this is a building specialized for GenAI workloads, the current generic model may fall short in estimating the IT inventory.
🏗️ Manufacturing
Formula
ITInventoryFootprint = NumberAverageServers * AverageServerBOM * AverageServerImpactFactors
See the inventory model page for exlanations on the number and type of servers accounted for in this calculation.
Impact Factors
| Criteria | Value |
|---|---|
| ADPe | 0.0378 |
| AP | 19.7 |
| GWP | 900 |
| PM | 0.000113 |
Using an average server archetype as a request on BoavitAPI project, selecting the ‘embedded impact’ category.
🚚 Transport
BoavitAPI doesn’t include transport and end-of-life calculations yet. We are looking for open-source impact factors for the next versions of the methodology.
⚡ Use
Formula
ITElectricityImpacts = ITElectricityConsumed * LocationBasedElectricityImpactFactors
With:
ITElectricityConsumed = TotalElectricityConsumed / PowerUsageEffectiveness
TotalElectricityConsumed being automatically calculated in the input form.
Impact Factors
Warning
As there are few multi-criteria electricity consumption impact factors that are free of use, with a license allowing for public sharing, those are pretty old (2011). Next versions of the methodology should include newer impact factors.
| Criteria | France | USA | Spain |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADPe | 0.0000000485798 | 0.0800844 | 5.18326e-8 |
| AP | 0.000209809 | 0.0800844 | 0.000229486 |
| GWP | 0.0800844 | 0.672606 | 0.459194 |
| PM | 0.0800844 | 0.672606 | 3.00833e-8 |
It is based on ADEME’s Base Empreinte, have a loot at “Electricity grid mix”.
🗑️ End Of Life
BoavitAPI doesn’t include transport and end-of-life calculations yet. We are looking for open-source impact factors for the next versions of the methodology.
🌳 Outdoor infrastructure
This functional unit doesn’t consider anything else than the datacenter building itself in version 1.
Version 2
Planned for 2026.