The Good Journal #8 - It’s not easy being green, but it is undeniably important.
At The Good Cloud, we’ve always made sure the data centre where our servers are housed is driven by renewable energy. We presumed this was the most we could do to ensure our GoodClouds aren’t bad for the environment. However, our new friends at Leafcloud have shown us there are many more possibilities in regards to being sustainable.
While exploring viable options for our business backup services, we discovered Leafcloud. Their operations, like ours, are anchored in the Netherlands, within the guardrails of the GDPR.
Leafcloud takes sustainability to new heights. They do more than just efficiently manage the excess heat generated by their servers. Or, as Leafcloud co-founder David Kohnstamm puts it: “It is just a way of saying ‘throwing away something valuable'”
This thermal energy is redirected to heat various facilities like nursing homes, swimming pools, and even large residential complexes. What’s more, housing their servers inside these facilities not only allows for the vast majority of the server heat to significantly reduce the building’s footprint, it – perhaps more importantly – also means not building wasteful/energy-guzzling new data centers.
With the rapid progress in AI technology, the energy consumption of servers worldwide is quickly reaching new peaks. Initiatives like Leafcloud’s are much-needed to make sure that technological advancements don’t come at the expense of our planet’s well-being.
As more sophisticated and resource-demanding features are developed within Nextcloud and our GoodCloud environments, we are committed to maintaining sustainable practices. We see it as our responsibility to embrace technological growth in a way that doesn’t compromise the health of our planet.
In this age of rapid digital transformation, it’s vital that we recognize our proverbial ‘clouds’ have a physical, environmental footprint. And we must do all we can to minimize the impact. We might still be some years away from Kermit singing a new song but, happily, being green just got a little easier.