SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced today it has earned the distinguished U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ENERGY STAR^® certification for exemplary energy performance in 29 of its data centers in 2019, representing 70 percent of the company's U.S. stabilized and managed portfolio based on sellable IT capacity. This marks the second consecutive year Digital Realty has earned the most EPA ENERGY STAR certifications among all U.S. data center providers.

Digital Realty

ENERGY STAR certifications indicate that Digital Realty's data center facilities are performing in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide, demonstrating the company's leadership in championing environmental stewardship and its commitment to meeting and exceeding the EPA's strict energy performance benchmarks. As part of its industry-leading sustainability initiatives, Digital Realty became the first data center provider to join as an ENERGY STAR Partner in 2019, underscoring the company's commitment to measuring and improving the energy efficiency of its data centers.

"We are pleased to be named an ENERGY STAR Partner and to earn these certifications, demonstrating Digital Realty's commitment to providing our customers with best-in-class solutions and energy-efficient facilities," said Digital Realty Chief Executive Officer, A. William Stein. "Our PlatformDIGITAL™ is one of the largest and most comprehensive data center solutions offerings available anywhere today, and we are committed to advancing our leadership position while addressing environmental impacts and energy performance."

Digital Realty's ENERGY STAR-certified data centers are estimated to avoid 1.2 million metric tons of CO2 emissions and save a total of 1.7 million megawatt hours annually relative to industry-average data centers, enough energy to power 142,000 average U.S. homes for a year. Furthermore, Digital Realty's ENERGY STAR-certified data centers perform more efficiently than 88 percent of data centers based on the EPA industry benchmark.

In addition to ENERGY STAR certifications, Digital Realty continues to deliver sustainably designed facilities. In 2019, Digital Realty earned LEED-Gold certification for four building projects across North America and also earned BREEAM-Excellent certification in the U.K. for the newest data center on its connected campus in Crawley, near London. LEED and BREEAM certifications focus on holistic environmentally responsible and healthy building design and construction practices for new development projects. These five certifications cover 1.1 million square feet and 85 megawatts of data center IT capacity. To date, Digital Realty has earned 65 green building certifications globally, totaling more than 650 megawatts of IT capacity.

"The expansion of our ENERGY STAR and green building certifications reflect the commitment and expertise our data center design and operations teams bring to their work," said Digital Realty Senior Director of Sustainability, Aaron Binkley. "We're proud to bring the benefits of these certifications to our global customer base and we are motivated to make even bigger strides in 2020."

Including these new certifications, Digital Realty's Elk Grove Village and Franklin Park campuses in Illinois now meet the green building standards set by state law to qualify for the Illinois data center tax incentive. Under the new legislation in Illinois, companies must invest, or have invested, at least $250 million, meet green building standards and employ 20 or more full-time employees. The recently enacted tax program creates a 100 percent state and local sales tax exemption for the purchasing of qualified property for each data center.

These data centers offer move-in ready cages and cabinets for customers to accelerate deployments, and also offer close proximity to network, cloud and content providers available within the metro and throughout Digital Realty's Service Exchange.

About Digital Realty
Digital Realty supports the data center, colocation and interconnection strategies of customers across the Americas, EMEA and APAC, ranging from cloud and information technology services, communications and social networking to financial services, manufacturing, energy, healthcare and consumer products. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Media & Industry Analyst Relations
Marc Musgrove
Digital Realty
(415) 508-2812
mmusgrove@digitalrealty.com

Investor Relations
John Stewart
Digital Realty
(415) 738-6500
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Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to our ENERGY STAR and Green Building Certifications, Illinois tax incentives, and our sustainability program. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE Digital Realty

Digital Realty Advances Sustainability Leadership, Earning Industry's Highest Number of ENERGY STAR and Green Building Certifications in 2019