Connect | London // Debate: Are sustainability frameworks delivering real progress, or masking the true impact?

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  • Energy & Sustainability
  • Open Session

Speakers

Paul Vivash

Paul Vivash

Sustainability - Europe, CoreWeave

Martina Kiehas

Head of ESG, maincubes SECURE DATACENTERS

Cora Olsen

Cora Olsen

Director of Sustainability & Regeneration, atNorth

Andy Lawrence

Executive Director of Research, Uptime Institute

Tom Parry

Tom Parry

Head of Digital Sustainability, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - UK Government

Audrey Pascual

Portfolio Manager - APAC, DCD

Infrastructure expansion is exposing the limits of established sustainability systems. Operators can secure strong results under LEED, BREEAM, and Scope 3 reporting while still missing the full environmental burden of rapid, large‑scale development. With Scope 3 now representing the majority of total emissions and tenant data is often estimated or unavailable, the reliability of these frameworks is increasingly questioned. The central issue is whether current standards still capture real‑world impact, or whether they have evolved into score‑optimisation mechanisms in a sector growing faster than its oversight tools.

This session will examine:

  • Whether frameworks measure real environmental impact
  • The limits of using generic building standards for data center design and operations
  • How viable Scope 3 reporting is when colocation tenant data is opaque
  • The need to include embodied carbon, biodiversity, and supply‑chain impacts in metrics
  • Whether the sector can judge if frameworks deliver measurable real‑world outcomes