As the AI infrastructure buildout accelerates, Uğur Büyük, Global Product Category Director for Access Hardware at Essentra Components, points to the role component manufacturers must play in developing sustainable supply chains for data centres.
The Financial Times has identified more than 200 public companies – spanning construction, engineering, and energy – that have pivoted to supply chains for data centres or semiconductors, contributing to a $700bn AI infrastructure buildout. According to a March 2026 briefing from the UK’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), the UK is home to around 450 large data centres, with the sector contributing an estimated £4.7 billion to the economy annually. Cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digitalisation are all expected to grow further, and as construction accelerates, the pressure on component manufacturers is increasing.
Uğur Büyük, Global Product Category Director for Access Hardware, has observed this growth first-hand. “It’s a rapidly expanding sector and an evolving industry,” he says. “We produce a wide range of locks, hinges, and hardware specifically for data centre applications, and it’s an area we are extremely focused on.” Essentra supplies the full range of physical components that go into a data cabinet – fasteners, spacers for electronics, caps and plugs used under servers, as well as the hinges and locking systems that secure the cabinets themselves. As the sector scales, Uğur argues that what happens at the component level will have strong links to the broader environmental conversation.
“Energy and water consumption are a useful reminder that the environmental cost of data centres doesn’t begin and end with the servers,” he explains. “It runs through the entire supply chain, including the components used to build and secure the infrastructure.” The POST briefing estimated that data centres used around 2% of all UK electricity as of July 2025, with roughly a third of that energy devoted to cooling alone.
Uğur says these figures are a sign that manufacturers should be thinking about their design process. “Manufacturers should be putting emphasis on incorporating recycled materials into production processes and reducing the carbon footprint of their operations,” he says. However, sustainable component design for data centres is challenging without mass regulation. “There’s no unified framework yet for how data centre components should be specified, and operators are often working to their own internal standards,” Uğur points out. “That makes it difficult to implement consistent sustainability practices across the sector.”
He points to one key challenge with the development of AI regulation – it’s a fast-moving area where the technology is outpacing the frameworks designed to govern it. It will eventually settle into a rhythm, he suggests, but the transition period requires manufacturers to be more flexible and more adaptive. “Common standards – for materials, for manufacturing processes, for environmental reporting – would benefit everyone,” he says. Without comparable data across the sector, manufacturers investing in reducing their environmental impact are unable to demonstrate progress against a shared benchmark.
The tension between performance and sustainability provides another challenge. Data centre components operate under sustained heat, continuous load, and significant pressure. Access hardware often requires pure metals, which adds complexity for manufacturers striving to operate circular, sustainable production. Responsible sourcing is not always straightforward, and demand for raw materials is rising alongside demand for data centre construction. “The materials you use need to meet a very high operational bar – but that doesn’t mean sustainability has to be sacrificed,” Uğur says. “It means manufacturers have to work harder to find the optimum point where performance and environmental responsibility meet.”
Data centre components have a relatively short lifespan, and keeping those materials in circulation is another opportunity. “Using recyclable materials, designing for longevity, and building in after-sales support are areas where component manufacturers can make a meaningful contribution,” Uğur explains. Quality and longevity are also linked: components specified correctly from the outset, and built to last under the conditions of a working data centre, mean fewer replacements and less waste over time.
Finding what Uğur describes as the sweet spot – where performance, longevity, and environmental responsibility are all addressed – will only become more pressing as data centre construction accelerates. “There’s a big challenge in keeping those data centre materials in circulation rather than sending them to landfill,” he says. “Circular economy thinking around component manufacturing has real potential here.”
For manufacturers, he points to how internal standards can lead the way. “Managing everything at the same time – good performance, high standards, and sustainability – is challenging. We are always trying to find the cleanest way to source materials without compromising on quality or function.”
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