Athough you may well have seen this in the news or in Data Center Knowledge's article, we were so impressed that the Green Gorilla couldn't pass up mentioning it.

As we know, a lot of aspects of running a data center have gotten negative media attention lately because of their high cost in natural resources, so people are getting ever more innovative in minimizing bad effects on the planet.

Google's latest tactics involve data center water usage.  Although for some reason it hasn't gotten as much attention as electrical expenditure, vast amounts of water may be used for data center cooling.  Google, always popular with the Green Gorilla, can boast one of the best approaches to data center water usage.

They don't mind using water that isn't processed thoroughly enough for human consumption, and this focus on using recycled water helps a lot with the impact on the environment.  Obviously no two locations are quite the same, so Google is developing a few different strategies to try out, depending on what is best-suited to a specific site.  One of the most interesting is harvesting rainwater if the area has an over-stressed sewage system that can't comfortably handle local rainfall.

The plan is to have Google data centers using 80% recycled water by the end of this year.  It's great to see a forerunner in the field so concerned about incorporating green IT into their everyday data center operations and by their action demanding the same level of responsibility and care from competitors.

-Elizabeth English

photo by peasap under flickr creative commons license

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