It is easy being green – Equinix awarded coveted new Green Mark

By Clement Goh, Managing Director, Equinix South Asia

Clement Goh, Managing Director, Equinix South Asia (left) receiving the GoldPLUS award on behalf of Equinix at the BCA-IDA Green Mark for New Data Centers Award Ceremony on March 14, 2013.

Equinix has invested a great deal of its brightest brains and resources to develop an eco-friendly and sustainable model for our data centers. Due to the nature of the data center game, this critical and strategic thinking has been part of our design and development long before the ‘greenification’ of our industry became the new marketing buzz flavour.

We are immensely proud of our trailblazing work in this area, which we hope will continually raise the bar on emerging industry standards.

In line with our commitment, this week it is an honour for Equinix to be officially recognized by the Singaporean government as one of the first data centers in the region to be Green Mark certified.

A first in Asia, this initiative was jointly created by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA). The BCA-IDA Green Mark for New Data Centers aims to encourage the adoption of energy efficient design, technologies and systems among new local data center operators.

The ranking applies to new data centers that are still in the planning and design phase and relies on energy modelling to assess the performance of a proposed design.

Under the scheme data centers are assessed on energy efficiency, water efficiency, sustainable construction and management, indoor environment quality as well as other green features.

The new rankings include Green Mark Platinum, GoldPLUS, Gold and Certified status. Our Equinix SG2 data center has received the GoldPLUS award. We were recognized for achieving energy savings of 4.3 million kilowatts hours annually and a reduction of 10% in electricity.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore champions the development of a well-built environment for Singapore. Dr John Keung, CEO of BCA, believes that rapid growth of the data center market represents many opportunities for companies to step forward not only to do their part for the environment, but also to realize cost savings for their business.

Data centers are traditionally known for being energy-intensive facilities, with energy consumption contributing to half of their overall operating costs. Implementing a green design for energy efficiency and sustainability is important, but should not merely be viewed as a checklist of features. Rather, it is a holistic methodology to create the optimum facility that will benefit businesses as well as the surrounding environment and community.

According to research from the 2010 Broadgroup survey, Singapore’s total commercial data center space was forecast to reach 336,900 sqm by 2015.

One of the most significant challenges we face in the data center sector is the availability of cost-effective, safe and reliable infrastructure to run our operations. This obviously includes the basics of power, clean water and connectivity, which in the developed markets of the world are often overlooked. But the issues around sustainable energy are now affecting markets globally and will take greater priority in the development of data center infrastructure whichever market in the world you are in.

Addressing these issues helps the industry, whether resource rich or poor, to help create a viable ecosystem with a future.

The BCA-IDA’s initiative is a testament to the government’s support in spurring innovation through the deployment of green data center technologies in Singapore. We are delighted to receive the GoldPLUS award and Equinix is committed to building data centers that integrate innovative, eco-friendly features.

Industry estimates suggest that a large data center in Singapore will consume energy equivalent to 10,000 households. This signifies opportunities for new data centers that can be Green Mark certified. By going green, data centers will be able to achieve potential savings of up to 30% and we look forward to raising the green stakes by example.