A Multidisciplinary Review of Sustainable Cloud Data Centers: Practices, Adoption Challenges, and Emerging Research Directions toward Alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Abstract

Cloud data centres are the backbone of the digital economy; however, their rapid expansion has raised concerns regarding vast energy consumption, carbon emissions, and environmental impact, posing challenges to sustainability. This multidisciplinary review investigates how cloud data centre operations can be strategically aligned with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). The paper aims to synthesize current sustainable practices, assess adoption challenges, and propose a framework for advancing socio-technical alignment within the industry. Through a structured literature review spanning computer science, environmental engineering, and organizational governance, this study identifies several emerging green practices such as renewable energy integration, AI-driven workload scheduling, advanced cooling systems, waste heat reuse, and circular hardware lifecycle management. Despite these advancements, the review identifies persistent obstacles, including the intermittency of renewable energy, escalating workload demands from AI and IoT, economic and regulatory constraints, and insufficient cross-sector coordination. To address these gaps, the paper proposes a Socio-Technical Sustainability Alignment Framework encompassing four interrelated layers: technical infrastructure, organizational governance, behavioural engagement, and external policy. This framework offers a practical roadmap for guiding the transition toward greener and more resilient digital infrastructure. Finally, the findings highlight that aligning cloud data centre development with the SDGs is not only viable but essential for reducing carbon emissions and ensuring the digital infrastructure contributes meaningfully to global sustainability goals.