The Austrian Ecolabel UZ80 for Data Centres is available

Be among the first subscribers and start your registration today!

FRAUSCHER CONSULTING supports you in the preparation, application and audit process.

The Federal Ministry for Climate Protection (BMK) has, together with the Association for Consumer Information (VKI), issued an Ecolabel for energy-efficient data centres. The UZ80 is one of a long list of environmental labels that are available for a wide variety of industries.

The UZ80 was developed on the basis of the German Blue Angel, which has been awarding a seal of quality for energy-efficient data centers for many years. The current version of the German Blue Angel UZ228 has now been adopted into the Austrian UZ80 with a significant adjustment:

The Blue Angel only allows natural refrigerants. However, this means that only a few refrigeration machines and CRACs are available for data centre use, meaning that almost the entire data centre inventory in Austria would not be certifiable. However, since the UZ80 sets out many other very valuable requirements in addition to the refrigerants, a path was chosen for Austria that includes a transition period. Data centres that use standard refrigerants today can get certified today if they meet all other criteria and have until 2030 or 2035 to switch to a natural refrigerant, depending on the refrigerant used.

General information on the UZ80 can be found on the VKI website at this link.

The UZ80 document with all requirements can be found here.

If you want to obtain the UZ80 for your data centre, you can register here.

Here is a description of the entire process from initial registration to awarding the UZ80:

The costs for certification are made up of several blocks and depend on the business model of the data center operator or user. The UZ80 defines three roles:

Data centre operator

Data centres where both the operation of the technical building equipment (M&E) and the operation of the majority of the information technology (related to the IT connection capacity) are the responsibility of the applicant (e.g. corporate data centres, managed service providers),

Data centre service providers

Data centres where the operation of the technical building equipment (TGA) and, if applicable, parts of the information technology (e.g. network technology, hosting servers) are the responsibility of the applicant (e.g. co-location data centres, mixed operation of co-location and hosting),

IT operator

Operation of information technology within a data centre that is certified with this environmental label. Applicants in this case can, for example, be customers within a co-location data centre certified with the environmental label.

The first cost block concerns the preparation for the application and the audit. If you already have all the necessary data available and would like to fill out the application documents yourself, there are no external costs. If you would like support at this point, FRAUSCHER CONSULTING is available to provide you with accredited consultants.

We help you to determine the KPIs to be announced, such as PUE or CER, if necessary to introduce an energy management system and create measurement concepts, or simply to compile the necessary information based on your documentation. The good news: you can get funding for these consulting services. FRAUSCHER CONSULTING is now registered with the funding agencies in almost all federal states, the rest will follow shortly.

We would be happy to explain the details of the costs of our consulting services and the funding options in a personal meeting. Contact us!

The second cost block concerns the audit. You can find a list of accredited testing centres here. You can get detailed information and an offer there. Depending on the role you play in the data centre (see above), the costs range between 3,500 and 10,000 euros.

The third cost block concerns the application fee and the annual trademark usage fee.

Here are the fees as of November 17, 2024:

If no external sales are recorded, the fees for sales class 3 will be applied.

Do you have any further questions? We look forward to hearing from you.

Our team lead for audits and certifications, Andreas Schüller, will be happy to help you.