As Earth Day 2022 approaches, with its theme of investing in our planet, it seems a perfect opportunity to talk about Acxiom’s ongoing efforts to achieve a more sustainable footprint. Protecting and preserving our world for future generations is critical, and it’s vital we factor sustainability into each and every business decision we make today, tomorrow, and moving forward. 

Last year IPG, Acxiom’s parent company, was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), North America for the second time. It is fully committed to operating sustainably and to advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As part of IPG, Acxiom is proud to play its part in driving the group’s sustainable business practices.

So what are we doing?  

As highlighted on the Earth Day website, “There is still time to solve the climate crisis, time to choose both a prosperous and sustainable future, and time to restore nature and build a healthy planet for our children … .” 

That’s why our team is busy undertaking targeted projects to improve the efficiency and environmental impact of Acxiom’s data centers. At the same time we’re providing a strengthened support structure for our business partners. 

With the largest environmental impact of data centers coming from the need to provide power and cooling to physical servers, we’re focusing on these aspects. And we’re making significant progress in three key areas:  

1. Consolidation of data centers 

Between 2019 and 2021 we reduced energy consumption by sunsetting three of our eight owned data centers. In addition, we also closed one of our leased facilities in the Chicago area to reduce our footprint there.  

2. Shift to virtualized environments

Acxiom’s cloud-first approach means a move to dynamic virtualized environments, which in turn enables consolidation to a smaller number of servers. This denser usage means there are fewer devices in the data center that require power and cooling. Over the last three years, the Acxiom Private Cloud has enabled considerable migration to dynamic virtual environments, with an almost 4x increase in virtual instances in 2021 alone.      

3. Conversion to air cooling  

To limit the use of water in our data centers, we have converted from water-cooled computer room air conditioner units to air-cooled units. Following 30 conversions, we now have air-cooled units throughout all of Acxiom’s owned data centers, and that has made a huge impact on lowering water consumption and significantly reduced waste. 

Achieving real results 

The consolidation of our data centers, combined with a move to virtualized environments and other initiatives such as lighting conversion, has contributed to an impressive reduction in total power use. Over the last four years our annual electrical consumption has dropped by approximately 35%. We’re using 30,000 kilowatts less each year than we did in 2018, which equates to the power consumption of almost 2,300 average U.S. households. 

Likewise, the conversion of water-cooled computer room air conditioner units to air-cooled units has dramatically reduced water use. Our total water consumption has reduced by more than 93% in the last four years. To put this into context, for every gallon of water we used in 2018, we’re now using just over a cup. Or, to look at it another way, the volume of water we’re no longer using each year would be enough to fill over 21,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.    

We are incredibly proud of the results we have achieved so far, and we’d like to give a huge thank you to Acxiom associates Laura Murphy, Joseph Hopper, Jim Thompson, Melanie Whitley, Brian Mayfield, Larry Hall, Brent Palmer, Tony Ward, and Scott La Bee, who have driven these projects forward. 

The measures outlined above are just the start of an ongoing effort and commitment to embed sustainability throughout our business. We’ll continue to minimize the footprint of our data centers and plan to exit another facility in 2023. With our cloud-first strategy meaning an ongoing shift to both the private and public cloud, increased density in physical device usage will drive further consolidation. 

In addition to making our data centers more sustainable, we’re addressing our wider carbon footprint across the organization. With an increase in hybrid working, we’re looking to make the most of the office space we have, reduce waste, and optimize power usage across all our facilities.  

At Acxiom, we’re fully committed to sustainability as we understand the need to protect our world for the next generation and beyond. We will continue to put the Earth Day advice to #InvestInOurPlanet into practice, not just this year but far into the future.