"Translating" the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to Enable the Systemic Green Transformation of the Data Centre Industry

The data centre industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors, driving the growing prominence of the digital economy. A vast digital infrastructure underpins all continuously running digital services worldwide. At the core of the infrastructure are energy and resource-demanding data centres, which house a significant amount of equipment and complex systems. The data centre industry is essential in innovation and sustainable transformation and can significantly contribute to achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study investigates data centre industry all-round sustainability impacts and proposes a framework to help industry stakeholders comprehend actions towards SDGs. The study employs a qualitative approach and composes primary source data from stakeholder interviews, co-creation workshops and feedback received. The fundamental findings reveal the need for sustainability and SDGs education. Furthermore, stakeholders believe SDGs are ambiguous and complex to translate for companies' needs and communicate meaningful contributions. As a result, the research project proposes an Action Bank - a simple educational database of SDGs translated to this unique sector. The solution addresses the need for increased sectoral awareness, clarity, and guidance on SDGs and aims to provide a blueprint of action for the industry. Lastly, this study provides the foundation for further research as the subject requires further exploration and more robust data collection from a larger sample covering all industry sub-sectors.