Environmental Footprint and Material Efficiency Support for product policy - Analysis of material efficiency requirements of enterprise servers

Abstract

This study is part of the ‘Environmental Footprint and Material Efficiency Support for product policy’ project funded by DG Environment (070307/2012/ENV.C1/635340). In June 2013, the preparatory study of enterprise servers was launched with the objective of identifying ways to improve their environmental performance. In early 2014, and in parallel to the preparatory study process, JRC-IES started a study for this product group with the aim to provide scientific support in the analysis of the end of life (EoL) and potential material efficiency requirements. The results of such study are those included in this report and aims to provide: more transparent and clear data about material composition of components included in servers; more exhaustive description about the end of life (EoL) of servers; and a more complete estimate of the benefits of the reuse and recycling of servers, in addition to global warming potential. All these additional information together is used as the basis to formulate new potential resource efficiency requirements for servers.