Abstract

The accelerating expansion of global digital infrastructure has raised critical concerns regarding data centres' energy efficiency and environmental impact. As digital transformation deepens, these facilities have become essential for computation and storage, yet represent a rapidly growing source of energy consumption. This study evaluates the sustainability of global data centres through a quantitative analysis of 135 facilities across 137 countries using 2021–2022 data. Moving beyond conventional efficiency ratios, two derived indicators—Power per Centre (MW) and White Space per Centre (m²)—were developed to examine architectural and operational performance. The findings reveal substantial regional disparities: Europe demonstrates the highest average efficiency (0.13 MW and 0.19 m² per centre), supported by regulatory standards and hyperscale designs. The Americas show lower per-centre power density (0.03 MW) due to legacy infrastructures. The strong correlation between gross power and white space (r > 0.99) indicates globally coupled energy and spatial provisioning growth. However, emerging regions such as Africa and the Pacific remain severely under-represented, highlighting an enduring digital divide. The analysis confirms that normalised metrics provide clearer design and energy equity insight than aggregate totals. The study concludes that sustainable digital infrastructure requires region-specific policies, transparent operational metrics reporting, modular renewable-ready designs, and developing a Global Digital Infrastructure Sustainability Index to guide future benchmarking and policy action.