In 2023, the Engineering Group, a leader in digitalization processes for businesses and Public Administrations, reduced annual electricity consumption by 5% at the Pont-Saint-Martin Data Center in Aosta Valley, achieving a significant environmental milestone as outlined in its Sustainability Plan.

In line with its commitment to sustainability, since 2022, the Group led by Maximo Ibarra has begun linking its financial strategy to ESG performance through cutting-edge tools structured with major Financial Institutions. The sustainability targets achieved at the Data Center enable Engineering to access these tools under more favorable economic conditions.

This result, verified by an independent third-party (Deloitte), which is tasked with ensuring the Data Center achieves an average annual reduction in consumption of 5% over the four-year period 2021-2024, was made possible thanks to energy efficiency measures initiated in 2021 at the Pont-Saint-Martin Data Center. As documented in the new Sustainability Report published a few weeks ago, these measures included:

• increasing the cooling capacity of the geothermal system by drilling two additional wells
• increasing the capacity for water extraction used for cooling.
  

Fabio Momola, Executive Vice President of Engineering, stated: “Our data centers, especially the one in Pont-Saint-Martin, represent a strategic asset for the Engineering Group, which aims to support its clients in leveraging the immense potential of cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and Digital Twin. At the same time, we are fully aware that these infrastructures, with their enormous computational capacities, are highly energy-intensive: therefore, we continue to engage in innovative energy efficiency projects to further reduce their environmental impact, in full alignment with the ESG targets set in our Sustainability Plan.”

In 2023, Engineering continued the project to compartmentalize thermodynamic flows within the Data Center, which separates hot and cold air to facilitate the reduction of temperatures in server rooms and, consequently, the cooling energy needs: the refrigeration units used for cooling water were turned off, leading to a decrease in electricity consumption and savings on electricity purchases.

Confirming the excellent level of efficiency, the Data Center further reduced its PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), the metric that measures the energy sustainability of the data center, from 1.48 in 2022 to 1.47 in 2023.

An additional environmental benefit of this new plant configuration is the elimination of methane consumption during the year: part of the heat from the return water circuit has been recovered and used for office heating, leading to the complete shutdown of the gas heating system.

The reduction in the Data Center's energy consumption adds to other significant environmental targets achieved by Engineering. As outlined in the Sustainability Report, the Group has pursued a rigorous energy optimization strategy, which allowed it to cut CO₂ emissions related to electricity consumption by 50% in 2023, reduce direct Scope 1 emissions by 7%, and ensure that 75% of the electricity used comes from renewable sources.