At Climate Week NYC, Digital Reef and Oreasoc Agriculture Inc. sign an offtake agreement connecting Digital Reef’s 3.3 GW data centre pipeline with environmental assets exceeding 30 million hectares of South American Amazon rainforest, mitigating the environmental footprint of data centre growth through rainforest protection and restoration where Oreasoc works alongside local communities to protect biodiversity, develop sustainable economies and safeguard their territories.
Xange.com are appointed as digital MRV technology partner to monitor the data centres and rainforest where Digital Reef will purchase verified environmental assets generated by Oreasoc, supporting the development of low-carbon data centres mitigating their environmental footprint through the protection of high-integrity natural ecosystems across the South American Amazon, whilst advancing sustainable economic development.
AI and data centre demand is driving rapid growth, with the International Energy Agency projecting data centre global electricity demand will more than double by 2030, to around 945 TWh. The growth should be countered by emission mitigation, focused on energy and water conservation and efficiency. Emissions that cannot yet be eliminated can be mitigated through the purchase of verified environmental assets generated by Oreasoc and the local communities protecting rainforest across the South American Amazon, one of the world’s largest natural carbon stores and a cornerstone of global climate stability.
Xange.com provides the technology for transparent emissions accounting across data centre design, construction and operation, and for monitoring rainforest:
- Xange.ai: dMRV for data centres, manages performance from design through operations recording energy use, water usage and emissions.
- Xange.com Polaris: dMRV for environmental data, capturing satellite and ground data from protected rainforest to verify the environmental assets generated.
“The Amazon cannot wait. As the planet grows hotter every year, the need to protect these forests becomes more urgent,” said Héctor José Orea Pulido, Founder of Oreasoc Agriculture Inc. “Long-term climate capital is essential to protecting nature at this scale. The growth of AI creates exactly that demand, with the Digital Reef agreement directing part of it to protecting the forests of the South American Amazon supporting climate stability whilst matching the needs of the planet and the AI sector.”
“AI and data centre demand is driving unprecedented growth, and with it their use of energy and land. Operators face growing pressure from investors, customers and regulators to measure and mitigate that impact,” said Digital Reef’s Founder Piers Slater. “The environmental impact of AI is rightly under scrutiny whilst, we believe, AI is critical to the growth of developed and developing nations alike. This agreement offers a pathway for the AI and data economy to scale while funding the protection of the planet for future generations.”
He continued: “This solution offers developers and enterprises a solution for sustainable data centre deployment in Europe and across Africa, the Middle East, South America and Asia, regions supporting the compute demand and growth driven by AI, where mitigating the environmental footprint of digital infrastructure matters as much as building it. The technology sector can fund a sustainable future for people, planet and prosperity.”
"Sustainable compute is essential to the IT revolution," said Esteban van Goor, Founder of Xange.com. "Together with Digital Reef and Oreasoc, we give data centres a transparent way to measure and mitigate their impact. Xange.ai captures data at source across energy, water, waste heat and food production to cut costs, while Xange.com Polaris monitors long-term forestry programmes and UN Sustainable Development Goals."
* Article first published on: itweb.africa
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