Sustainability Benefits of Prefabricated Data Centers: Core and Shell Carbon Reduction

As organizations seek to reduce the environmental impact of new data center deployments, construction-phase carbon emissions are becoming an increasingly important design consideration. This paper evaluates the carbon emissions associated with core and shell infrastructure by comparing a traditional stick-built electrical room with an equivalent deployment of prefabricated power modules. Emissions associated with core and shell construction arise from four primary sources: above-ground clearing of the site, freight of materials, on-site construction activity, and materials used. The analysis shows that prefabricated core and shell construction can significantly reduce embodied carbon across these stages. In the representative case evaluated, the prefabricated approach reduced carbon by approximately 80% at deployment. Even with modules replaced every 20 years, the cumulative embodied carbon of the core and shell remains more than 50% lower than the stick-built alternative after 60 years.