Whole Life Carbon is the total greenhouse-gas emissions of an asset across its entire life cycle, combining embodied carbon from materials, construction and end-of-life with operational carbon from energy use in service. For data centers it captures the trade-off between building efficiently and running efficiently, since concrete, steel and equipment can rival years of operational emissions. It underpins credible, boundary-complete decarbonization planning.
Category: Sustainability & Metrics · Subcategory: Energy & Carbon · Part of the AIDC Technical Terminology reference.