Digital services run on real electricity and real hardware.

The climate impact of an IT service depends on three things: how much energy it uses, how clean that energy is, and how much hardware is needed to deliver it.

In a country with a fossil-heavy power grid, operation usually dominates. In Norway, where almost all electricity comes from hydropower and wind, the electricity is low-carbon, so manufacturing and hardware efficiency become the main levers. That is why our approach covers the whole lifecycle, not just the power supply.

Our Oslo data centres run on renewable electricity. Norway's power production comes almost entirely from hydropower and wind, which gives one of the lowest-carbon electricity supplies in Europe.

Why location matters for your footprint: two identical servers running the same workload can have very different emissions depending on the power grid behind them. If the lowest possible carbon footprint is a priority, choose Norway as the location for your systems and backups. You decide the location when the service is set up, and it is stated in your contract.

Norway also offers a stable, cool climate and political stability, which reduces the energy needed for cooling and the risk of disruption.

Clean power is only part of the picture. A data centre also has to use that power efficiently, and ideally make use of the heat it produces.

• Free cooling – when the outside air is cold enough, which in Oslo is a large part of the year, the cooling plant at Oslo – Ulven cools with outside air instead of running its compressors
• Heat reuse – at Oslo – Ulven, heat exchangers send the servers' waste heat into Oslo's district heating network. The heat delivered corresponds to the winter heating needs of about 5,000 homes
• Low overhead – Oslo – Lørenskog reports an average PUE below 1.25: less than a quarter extra on top of the energy used by the IT equipment

Figures are as reported by our data centre providers.

The most sustainable server is the one that never has to be built. Our platform is designed to run customer workloads on as little physical hardware as possible.

For customers moving from their own server room, this often means a lower footprint without changing a single application: the same systems, run on fewer, more efficient servers in a data centre built for the purpose.

Because manufacturing accounts for a large share of a server's lifetime emissions, we pay attention to where our hardware comes from and where it ends up.

1. Choosing suppliersWe buy from hardware partners that publish detailed product carbon footprint (PCF) reports, so the emissions from manufacturing and transport of each model are documented.
2. Using it wellVirtualisation and capacity planning keep utilisation high, so each server does as much useful work as possible during its life.
3. Decommissioning securelyRetired equipment is handled by a certified recycling company in line with EU rules for electronic waste (WEEE). Storage media are securely wiped or physically destroyed before the equipment leaves our control, and data destruction is documented.

Sustainability also covers how we treat people, both in our own company and in our supply chain.

• Zero tolerance for corruption, bribery and forced labour, in our own business and among our suppliers
• Transparency Act (Åpenhetsloven) – every year we carry out due diligence assessments of human rights and decent working conditions across our own business, suppliers and partners, based on the OECD due diligence guidance for responsible business conduct. The statement is approved and signed by the board and the CEO. Request the 2025 statement (Norwegian, PDF). Questions about our work under the Act can be sent to finance@basis.no.
• Safe workplace with respect for labour rights
• Short supply chain – no subcontractors apart from the data centre facilities that house our own hardware, which makes it easier to know who is involved

In our own office we keep things simple:

• Paperless – contracts, invoices and documentation are handled digitally
• Remote work – staff work remotely where possible, reducing commuting
• Recycling – waste is sorted and recycled

Many organisations now have to report on the emissions of the services they buy, for example under the EU's CSRD or in customer and investor ESG questionnaires. Hosting and IT operations are part of these purchased-service emissions (scope 3).

We provide the following documentation on request:

"Green cloud" is easy to claim. These questions help you compare providers on facts, and these are our answers.

1. Where is the data centre, and what powers it?Norway or Germany, both on renewable electricity. You choose the location. See section 02.
2. What is the PUE?Oslo – Lørenskog reports an average below 1.25. See section 03.
3. Is the waste heat used?Yes. At Oslo – Ulven it goes into Oslo's district heating network. In Hamburg, our provider plans to use waste heat.
4. How well is the hardware utilised?All workloads run on a shared, virtualised platform with SSD storage and data reduction, rather than on dedicated, mostly idle servers.
5. What happens to retired equipment?It is recycled by a certified recycling company, after storage media have been securely wiped or destroyed.
6. Can you document all of this?Yes. See section 07 for what we provide.