Eco-design of the first local public data center in Sarthe

Published on May 24, 2026 -

APL’s sustainable IT department supported Sartel in reducing the energy and environmental impact of converting a former paper archives center into a data center.

Client company

SARTEL

Industry

Public service

Type of support

Project management assistance

Type of service

Consulting and support in data center design, including an eco-responsible dimension

Context and objectives of the assignment

Since 2005, Sarthe Numérique has been responsible for the digital development of the Sarthe department. The public joint authority decided to equip the area with a new public data center to offer local institutions and economic stakeholders in Sarthe secure, local hosting services. It entrusted its public service delegate Sartel (Axione Group) with the design, construction, operation and marketing of this data center.

Sarthe Numérique and Sartel chose to refurbish an existing building, a paper archives center, to reduce the project’s environmental footprint. Sartel called on APL for project management assistance to convert this existing site into a data center, from the design phase through to promoting the project to stakeholders, including managing the execution of the works and commissioning the data center.

Completed assignments

Upstream of the project:

Support in defining the technical program and selecting the company in charge of the project’s design-and-build
Studies and recommendations to limit the project’s environmental impact: reuse of the building’s concrete structure and retention of the existing roof, energy optimization of the cooling system, control of waste generated by the refurbishment and reuse of materials…
Life cycle assessment in accordance with ISO 14040/14044 standards to quantify avoided environmental impacts (use of natural resources and primary energy, carbon impact…)

During the execution phase:

Support for detailed design studies and management of works monitoring
During the construction phase, implementation of circular economy principles (reuse, repurposing or recycling)
Data center commissioning and verification of compliance with regulations and the project’s main objectives

Downstream of the project:

Support in drafting newsletters highlighting the project, as part of a broader approach aimed at reducing Sarthe Numérique’s carbon footprint

Client benefits

Data center offering very high levels of availability, security and energy performance (target PUE of 1.25) and environmental performance.
During the construction phase, reuse, repurposing and recycling of materials from the existing building during the construction of the data center: a 56% reduction in carbon footprint, a 60% reduction in resources used and a 52% reduction in primary energy for the conversion phase from the former paper archives center into a data center. "By way of example, Sartel donated 22.6 tonnes of materials to various public and private organizations, thereby promoting the reuse of these materials and helping to reduce waste generation".
During the operating phase: energy savings of around 20%, with racks able to be cooled using free cooling 70% of the time on average; 22% energy savings thanks to optimized water distribution.

Our solutions for

APL Data Center designs and optimizes critical infrastructures capable of meeting the major challenges of the digital age: data security, service continuity, scalability, cost control and sustainability.
Through a global approach integrating innovation and CSR, we support every type of client in creating next-generation data centers tailored to their uses and constraints.

Hyperscaler

On the scale of major cloud operators, APL Data Center designs and deploys infrastructures built for performance, resilience and energy efficiency, to support the global rise of cloud and AI and to build the responsible data centers of tomorrow.

Colocation

Faced with the challenges of availability and proximity of digital services, APL Data Center supports hosting providers in creating modular, secure, and scalable data centers. Designed infrastructures meet the needs of distributed cloud and edge architectures.

Company

To support the digital transformation of organizations, APL Data Center designs and optimizes reliable, scalable, and sustainable data centers. These sovereign infrastructures meet the performance, security, and compliance requirements of businesses.

Public sector

Serving public sector actors, APL Data Center designs secure, compliant, and eco-efficient data centers that meet regulatory requirements and digital sovereignty challenges while guaranteeing service continuity.