EU pressures Big Tech to go green with new data center sustainability label

BRUSSELS — Brussels on Monday unveiled an environmental rating scheme for data centers that power artificial intelligence, a move the EU's energy chief described as the first step in pressuring tech giants into aligning with the continent’s climate efforts. The new rules , which will apply from August 2027, oblige big data centers to display a label grading them on their energy efficiency, water usage and clean power uptake on a scale of A to G, much like the EU's influential appliances ranking . “This will add a lot of transparency and hopefully provide the incentives for these data centers to be as sustainable as possible,” said Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen in an interview with POLITICO ahead of the label's presentation.