Sustainability in Project bwCloud 3: Transparent Procurement and Enhanced Inventory Management
By introducing clearly defined sustainability criteria in procurement and expanding inventory management, Project bwCloud 3 is laying the foundation for a measurable and transparent IT infrastructure for bwCloud-OS.
Sustainability does not begin with operations—it starts at the procurement stage. As part of Project bwCloud 3, greater emphasis is being placed on systematically integrating environmental and social criteria into the hardware selection process. The goal is to establish an infrastructure that is both economically and environmentally responsible over the long term.
Going forward, procurement will be considered sustainable when, in addition to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), at least two further defined sustainability criteria are taken into account. The project is also evaluating the feasibility of using refurbished IT equipment in data center environments—provided there is both an economic and environmental benefit. Demand-based sizing and the consideration of alternative technologies are also key factors in this process.
At the same time, inventory management is being further developed. The aim is to move beyond simple asset tracking by enriching inventory data with technical and environmental metrics. These include information such as energy consumption, weight, operational status, and—where available—manufacturer-provided data on CO₂ emissions across a device’s entire lifecycle.
These data points are set to become standard across bwCloud-OS operational sites. This will create a solid foundation for making sustainability measurable and enabling well-informed decisions for future procurement.