We strive to collect complete and accurate energy use information from all of our offices and data centers worldwide.
In this section you’ll see a breakdown of the total energy use by our offices and data centers as well as per employee. Visit the greenhouse gas section of this report to see these figures as emissions. For more information about how we collect and estimate our energy use, please see the data transparency section of this report.
Our energy use: Year Over Year
In 2014 we added data center capacity, increased our staff by 38%, and improved our data collection methods, collectively resulting in a 41% increase in our overall energy use.
2013
2014
Our energy use: office vs. data centers
Our energy use: kWh per employee
Moving to renewables
Renewable energy has been a lively topic of conversation at Etsy over the past year. Our emerging strategy aims to encompass on-site generation, local purchasing, and values-aligned investments in renewable energy projects.
The on-site component will focus efforts at our offices and data centers. We have been exploring a number of on-site renewable energy projects in partnership with our landlords, and are working to have one or more projects in development by 2016.
We are also seeking opportunities for renewable energy investment that will have positive financial as well as environmental impact on our employees, sellers, and buyers.
To date, 9% of our total electricity use across all of our data centers and offices comes from renewable sources. This combines active purchasing through local energy providers as well as renewables that are part of the power grid mix already being offered in cities where our offices are located. In some cases this power grid mix includes large-scale hydropower. We are currently reviewing whether large-scale hydro will be included in our definition of renewable energy going forward.
Our data centers
Choosing locations and vendors for our data centers is critical to our operations, and poses an excellent opportunity to put our values into practice. In 2014 we partnered with Sabey as our West Coast data center provider. Sabey is a family-operated business with a strong commitment to the environment.They were happy to accommodate our ecological monitoring, and let us monitor our power consumption from their equipment, which most other service providers don’t allow. Our energy use at Sabey is nearly 100% carbon neutral because of the renewable energy investment made by the local power provider, Seattle City Light and Utility.
We are also lowering energy consumption at our data centers on the East Coast by monitoring our energy use per server rack. Our efficiency is increasing with updated data center facilities and new techniques for maximizing efficiency, along with better equipment that improves density and utilization per server.
In the coming year we will be experimenting with equipment design improvements to further our energy reduction efforts.