Sustainability

Hard drives are the most sustainable data storage medium

Circuit-patterned leaf icon conveys environmentally sustainable technology and the role of hard drives in sustainable data storage.

Sustainability isn’t just about how efficiently a product performs during its use. It’s about its entire lifecycle — from raw materials to end of life. While focusing on operational life is important, data center operators also care about environmental impacts that occur due to production, transportation and disposal.

These lifecycle stages contribute to Scope 1, 2, 3 and 4 emissions: direct emissions from owned operations (Scope 1), indirect emissions from purchased energy (Scope 2), all other indirect emissions across the value chain (Scope 3) and “avoided emissions” (Scope 4), meaning emissions that are avoided when a company’s products or services help others reduce their footprint. By taking a full lifecycle perspective, we can design more intelligently, source more responsibly and reduce emissions at every stage.

Data center power and emissions

Storage plays a larger role in data center emissions than many assume. It contributes about 33% of operational emissions and 61% of embodied emissions.

Storage racks alone account for 24% of operational and 45% of embodied emissions in general-purpose cloud data centers, according to HotCarbon's research¹. Storage servers carry so many storage devices they become the dominant energy consumers.

The best way to reduce operational emissions in a storage server is to reduce the storage devices’ energy. Hard drive storage racks use 4 times less power and have 10 times less embodied carbon emissions compared to SSD storage racks.

Why areal density matters

Investments in higher areal density hard drives allow cloud service providers to store more data per drive, allowing more capacity to be deployed within the same physical footprint. This lowers the total cost of ownership by cutting hardware, energy and space costs, and advances sustainability efforts by decreasing raw material usage and electronic waste. In this way, enhancements in storage efficiency simultaneously boost data center profitability and promote environmental responsibility. Sustainability and cost savings can go hand in hand.

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Sustainability equals hard drives

Cloud services maximize the efficiency of both storage and compute resources. Hard drives offer the most sustainable data storage solution across the entire lifecycle compared to SSDs and tape.

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Embodied carbon

Hard drives have the lowest embodied carbon footprint among major storage media. This makes hard drives the most carbon-efficient choice for large-scale data storage.

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Power consumption

Hard drives are the most power-efficient storage medium for large-scale data centers because they consume less power than SSDs and tape.

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Online and offline storage

Hard drives are the most carbon-efficient option for large-scale data storage across online and nearline environments. They deliver lower embodied carbon than SSDs and provide scalable capacity for data that must remain accessible over time, while tape serves distinct, fully offline archival needs.

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Storage rack CO2e emissions

In cloud data centers, storage racks contribute a substantial share of carbon emissions. Hard drive-based racks deliver significantly lower operational and embodied emissions per terabyte compared to SSD-based designs.

Sustainability at exabyte scale

Hard drives help address data center sustainability challenges

Comparing Data Center Storage Media

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Hard drives⁴

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SSD³

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Tape⁵

Sustainability matrix

Embodied Carbon⁶ (CO2/TB/yr | Factor)

Embodied Carbon⁶ (CO2/TB/yr | Factor)
<0.27 kg | 1×

Embodied Carbon⁶ (CO2/TB/yr | Factor)
5.9 kg | 20×

Embodied Carbon⁶ (CO2/TB/yr | Factor)
<0.6 kg | 3×

Online Power⁷ (Watt/TB | Factor)

Online Power⁷ (Watt/TB | Factor)
<0.22W | 1×

Online Power⁷ (Watt/TB | Factor)
0.8W | 3×

Online Power⁷ (Watt/TB | Factor)
1W | 5×

Offline Use-Case⁸ CO2e Emissions (Archive)

Offline Use-Case⁸ CO2e Emissions (Archive)
1×

Offline Use-Case⁸ CO2e Emissions (Archive)
6×

Offline Use-Case⁸ CO2e Emissions (Archive)
2-5×

Data Center Storage Rack¹ CO2e Emissions

Data Center Storage Rack¹ CO2e Emissions
1×

Data Center Storage Rack¹ CO2e Emissions
4× operational

10× embodied

Data Center Storage Rack¹ CO2e Emissions
Not publicly disclosed

Exos Mozaic 40TB hard drives compared to Exos 20TB

Embodied Carbon Reduction

Embodied Carbon Reduction
22% kg CO₂e reduction per TB

30% improvement

Energy Efficiency

Energy Efficiency
0.22Watt/TB is a 55% power reduction per TB

120% improvement

Areal Density Benefit

Areal Density Benefit
2 times more capacity

100% improvement in slot utilization

Understanding life cycle assessment and embodied carbon

It is crucial for industries to understand the environmental impact of their products. This white paper delves into the concepts of life cycle assessment and embodied carbon, offering a comprehensive analysis of their significance in evaluating and mitigating the environmental footprint of products — from creation to disposal.

Read the white paper

Seagate Secure

Comprehensive, sustainable security for your data’s entire journey

Seagate Secure delivers robust data protection for the entire lifespan of your hard drive, utilizing hardware-based encryption and cryptographic erasure to prevent unauthorized access. With built-in SED and ISE features, your data remains secure from installation through end of life, promoting compliance with privacy and regulatory standards. Seagate Secure makes safe drive reuse, recycling and material recovery possible — supporting both data privacy and environmental goals within a circular business model.

Learn more about product security

Seagate Circularity Program

We build our hard drives to last. Give yours a second life.

Seagate's Circularity Program is designed to extend the life cycle of hard drives, offering a secure and sustainable alternative to the traditional “take-make-waste” model by prioritizing reuse over recycling. This approach significantly reduces electronic waste and carbon emissions. Studies show that reusing hard drives saves 275 times more CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) compared to recycling the components — specifically, reuse can result in a reduction of 5.5 kg² CO₂e per drive, while recycling only achieves a reduction of 0.02 kg² CO₂e. With secure data sanitization and certified erasure, Seagate makes it possible for drives to be safely refurbished and redeployed, minimizing environmental impact and supporting a more responsible datasphere.

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Recommended resources

Report

The Decarbonizing Data Report

Challenges and solutions around data center sustainability in the AI era.

Whitepaper

Understanding Life Cycle Assessment and Embodied Carbon

Exploring the environmental impact and sustainability of products.

Whitepaper

Incentivizing Circular Economy Reuse of Data Storage Drives

A comparison of GHG allocation methodologies to inform a new industry standard.

Report

ESG at Seagate

By working together to craft a sustainable datasphere, we can drive data’s potential forward — and humanity’s.

Report

Product Sustainability

Find out how Seagate is driving a sustainable datasphere through product circularity and beyond.

McAllister, S. et al. “A Call for Research on Storage Emissions” HotCarbon. July 9, 2024: https://hotcarbon.org/assets/2024/pdf/hotcarbon24-final126.pdf
Jin, H., Frost, K., Sousa, I., Ghaderi, H., Bevan, A., Zakotnik, M. and Handwerker, C., 2020. Life cycle assessment of emerging technologies on value recovery from Hard Drives. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 157, p.104781. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104781
Ocient/Soligidm Whitepaper 2025: Meeting the Challenges of Modern Big Data Solidigm D5-P5430 (30.72TB): 900 kg CO2e / 30.72TB = 29.3 kg CO2e/TB / 5 years = 5.86 kg CO2e/TB/Year
Embodied carbon prediction for Seagate Exos Mozaic 40TB hard drives per TB for five-year life cycle.
“Breakdown of the CO2e and Other Positive Sustainability Impacts of IBM Physical Tape Products “ IBM LTO FH drive with 1 media. https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/YE5WAQ0B January, 2022. Spectra Logic LTO-10 Tape Drive Datasheet (LTO power consumption) https://spectralogic.com/wp-content/uploads/LTO-10-Tape-Drive-Datasheet-Spectra-Logic.pdf.
Using total embodied carbon per TB with a 5-year lifecycle.
Assumes hyperscaler use case with 24×7 operation and no idle time.
Seagate analysis of power consumption and carbon emissions for different archive workloads. Comparing LTO10 Tape with Mozaic 40TB hard drives and 30.72 TB SSD.

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Sustainability

Data center power and emissions

Storage plays a larger role in data center emissions than many assume. It contributes about 33% of operational emissions and 61% of embodied emissions.

Why areal density matters

Sustainability equals hard drives

Sustainability at exabyte scale

Sustainability matrix

Exos Mozaic 40TB hard drives compared to Exos 20TB

Understanding life cycle assessment and embodied carbon

Seagate Secure

Comprehensive, sustainable security for your data’s entire journey

Seagate Circularity Program

We build our hard drives to last. Give yours a second life.

Recommended resources