We cover the taxonomy-eligible economic activity Data processing, hosting and related activities (8.1) with our Systems Solutions operating segment (T-Systems). As well as data centers operated by T‑Systems, we also included data centers operated on co-locations in the evaluation of taxonomy eligibility. 

Economic activity 8.1 represents the largest proportion of taxonomy-eligible turnover, capital expenditure, and operating expenditure: in 2022, taxonomy-eligible business activities for data processing and hosting represented 1.0 percent of turnover, 0.4 percent of capital expenditure, and 19.0 percent of direct expenses, based on the relevant total figures for the Group. To illustrate taxonomy eligibility at segment level, too, we also report supplementary KPIs for the Systems Solutions operating segment (T-Systems). The taxonomy-eligible portion is 36.0 percent in relation to net revenue of the segment, and 62.6 percent in relation to capital expenditure.

Data centers must comply with the European Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency in Data Centres to be considered as making a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation in accordance with the EU taxonomy . Five of the eight sites operated directly by T‑Systems currently comply with this Code of Conduct. Compliance with the Code of Conduct has not yet undergone external auditing, which is a requirement of the EU taxonomy. We are therefore classifying the data centers used for economic activity 8.1 as non-taxonomy-aligned in the reporting year. 

In addition, the EU taxonomy stipulates that the refrigerants used in data center cooling systems may not exceed a global warming potential value of 675. This criterion is currently met by one data center that was fully refurbished in 2022. At present, the other sites still use industry-typical refrigerants that meet the criteria of the EU directive on fluorinated greenhouse gases. The taxonomy-aligned turnover, capital expenditure, and operating expenditure for economic activity 8.1 are therefore all 0.0 percent.

We will make the change to taxonomy-aligned refrigerants as part of the regular refurbishment program for our data centers. We will carefully review the individual data centers’ compliance with the criteria for preventing significant harm to the remaining environmental objectives in each case as soon as they fulfill the aforementioned climate change mitigation requirements in full. This will enable us to continually increase the taxonomy alignment of our data centers.  
 

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Silke Thomas