This research-in-progress paper aims to develop a design science research methodology (DSRM) for sustainability and direct and indirect environmental impact from the activates that are performed in data centers. The design science research methodology is founded in the DSRM developed by Peffers et al. in 2007 and builds further on the work by vom Brocke and Seidel (2012) on direct and indirect effects on environmental sustainability of design artifacts. The paper aims to articulate specific considerations and practice rules within the vom Brocke and Seidel framework for data centers. In this framework both direct objectives, such as performance metrics and energy consumption, and indirect objectives, such as data center security measures and alignment between business processes and resource utilization are included. The framework will subsequently be tested in an empirical study at a major Scandinavian data center.