Sustainability impacts every industry today, and data centers lie at the center of most of these activities. We recently talked to Karen Petersburg, the Design Director at Digital Realty, about why sustainability is vital to the industry, the role that Digital Realty and Schneider Electric play, and how the Ashburn campus in Northern Virginia helps take sustainability global.

Why is data center industry sustainability important?

The demand for digital services has exploded in recent years. In fact, almost 65% of the global population now uses the Internet to some extent.* Most industry data, such as banking, medical, flight information, social media, and most other industries, is stored and processed in data centers, so data centers are vital to driving our economy and are essential to digital transformation.

Digital Realty leads the green energy industry

Digital Realty has kept sustainability at the heart of everything we do, finding opportunities to reach greater efficiencies, reduce waste, and foster renewables. For example, we are proud to be:

The first data center operator to reach one gigawatt of IT capacity certified under sustainable building standards and more than any other data center developer
The only data center provider to receive
- The 2022 EPA ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year
- Sustained Excellence Award
- The 2022 Green Lease Leader, Platinum Award
Able to continue to garner recognition and awards, such as:
- Newsweek’s Most Responsible Companies 2022
- JUST Capital’s America’s Most JUST Companies 2022 – Top 100
- EPA Green Power Partnership’s Top 10 Tech and Telecom List

Partnering with Schneider Electric

Schneider Electric’s products contributed to our goal of a 10% reduction in Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) in 2022. We have also improved operational reliability, enhanced reporting, and optimized facility control while capturing nearly $1 million in annual savings through our partnership.

The right partner can make a difference, and our collaboration with Schneider Electric is helping empower sustainability gains. They understand how the data center market is always changing and growing and how we need the power of a connected infrastructure to deliver an efficient, resilient, and more sustainable product.

Sustainable Data Centers in Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia is the home to the world's most extensive collection of data centers, providing access to the most secure and scalable platform. Our Ashburn campus houses sixteen move-in-ready data centers with robust, diversified, neutral connectivity to all major cloud providers. Here you can access network cloud, IT, financial, and content partners and providers, and enterprise customers through an extensive fiber network.

Sustainable Design and Construction

Largest LEED certified data center portfolio in Virginia
- 4.9 million SF (439 MW) certified in VA
Extensive use of cooling systems that do not use water
- 250 MW IT supported
Green bonds allocated to Digital Realty’s Virginia projects
- $1.8 Billion since 2016

Responsible Operations

Most ENERGY STAR certified data centers in northern Virginia
- 52% of portfolio (5.9 million SF and 500 MW)
Renewable Energy
- 160 MW renewable energy contracted in Dominion territory since 2017
- Comparable to the electricity needs of 51,000 homes annually
Extensive use of reclaimed water
- 85% of total water use in VA
Energy efficiency
- 11,000 MWh energy savings since 2017
- Comparable to the electricity needs of 1,500 homes annually

81% of Digital Realty’s portfolio in VA has LEED or ENERGY STAR certification

Highlighted in the video is Ashburn’s Building L which is purpose-built to set the mark for sustainable facilities:

The capacity of 96MW of IT spans over 1.1 million square feet
- That’s long enough to house two USS-class aircraft carriers!
Uses lithium-ion (LiOn) UPS battery technology
- Lower cost of ownership, smaller environmental footprint, 2-3 times the service lift
Uses “free-air cooling”
High water efficiency
Plumbing fixtures are low-flow, appliances are energy star certified, and our lighting is all LED
83% of construction waste was diverted from landfill
31% recycled content in construction materials

Taking Sustainability Global

Digital Realty is finding new ways to power data centers. We have contracted 1+ gigawatts of renewable energy since 2016 with utility-scale wind and solar power plants. We make it a priority to add new wind and solar in the same markets where we operate data centers. We are proud to play a leading role in a more sustainable digital future by:

Setting ambitious climate reduction targets in 2020 to bring carbon emissions in line with a 1.5-degree climate change scenario by 2030
Sending waste heat to neighboring hospitals and businesses
Deploying the latest generations of battery and cooling technology
And minimizing our environmental impact as we foster the global transition to a digital economy

Go Green and Go Global with PlatformDIGITAL^®
By leveraging PlatformDIGITAL, our global data center and connectivity platform, top international brands can:

Optimize network performance
Enhance security and infrastructure management
Deploy, connect, and host critical data infrastructure

Explore Northern Virginia

You can find more information about our global sustainability commitments in our annual corporate sustainability report.

^{* Kemp, S. (2023, February 4). Digital 2023: Global Overview Report. Retrieved from DataReportal.com}

Sustainability First: Digital Realty’s Global Commitment to Reducing Our Carbon Footprint