EU Commission proposes new data centre sustainability rating label

The European Commission recently announced a ‘Have your say’ public consultation on a proposal for a second delegated regulation connected with the establishment of a common EU scheme for rating the sustainability of data centres. The public consultation is open until 23 April 2026.

The proposal prescribes the format and information to be included in a data centre sustainability rating label. The European Commission is keen to stress that:

Whilst this may be true, the reporting requirements which support the rating scheme, have already presented multiple challenges most notably in respect of the confidentiality and commercial sensitivity of the reportable information and key performance indicators.

The context

Article 33(3) Directive (EU) 2023/1791 on energy efficiency empowers the European Commission to adopt delegated acts which establish a scheme for rating the sustainability of data centres.

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 which established the reporting aspect of the scheme, requires data centre operators of data centres with an installed information power demand of at least 500kW to report individual data centre sustainability information and key performance indicators to a new EU database, either via a national reporting scheme, or if one had not been established, directly to the EU database. First reports were required by 15 September 2024, then by 15 May 2025, and each year thereafter.

This proposal is the next step in establishing the rating scheme.

The proposal

It prescribes that the European Database shall rate data centres by means of issuing electronic labels automatically generated from the information and key performance indicators provided to it. The label will also be accompanied by a document, common to all labels, produced by the European Commission, which will provide contextual and explanatory information to support the interpretation of the label.

Not all information and key performance indicators will be made publicly available via the label. The proposal states that the information displayed on the label should be the most relevant information for achieving the objectives of the regulation while also respecting trade and business secrets and confidentiality concerns. An example label is below. Specific details about the information and metrics can be found in Annex II(2) of the proposal.

In addition to the label itself, the proposed delegated regulation also contains several material amendments to the first delegated regulation including:

1. a revision to the Article 5(5) confidentiality clause to carve out information and key performance indicators in the label;
2. voluntary reporting of information and key performance indicators for operators of data centres with an installed information technology demand of less than 500kW;
3. removal of data traffic indicators from the list of key performance indicators;
4. further relaxation of reporting requirements for colocation data centre operators, reflecting challenges around gathering data from colocation tenants due to confidentiality/commercial sensitivity concerns; and
5. the introduction of an opportunity for member states to carry out market surveillance tasks.

Please contact either of the authors for further information.