Tag: environment

This year we are launching an interactive sustainability report website to make it easier for our stakeholders to engage with our environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives and find the information they need quickly. And we are expanding many of our programs to build on earlier successes.

The annual release of our Corporate Sustainability Report provides a transparent look at the ways Equinix is reducing our environmental impact and improving the lives of those around us in our key focus areas: environment, people, governance and community. It also details why we’re doing it.

Greenpeace’s annual “Clicking Clean” report on the green energy practices of internet companies had good news for Equinix, as we finished as the seventh-best performer among all companies globally and earned an improved “B” grade.

Last year, Equinix announced a commitment to power our entire global data center platform with 100% clean and renewable energy. It’s a long-term goal, and we knew it wouldn’t be easy. We also knew there might be some cool pictures along the way.

In April 2015, Equinix announced a long-term commitment to use 100% clean and renewable energy for our global data center platform. To help us achieve that goal, we entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Invenergy to buy 100 megawatts (MW) of capacity from the 150-turbine Wake project. That is about 40% of the electricity generated from the array of 265-foot tall turbines being constructed here.

The goal is to slash monstrous data center cooling costs via a 38,000-pound, submerged, water-proof data center container and leveraging the natural cooling capabilities of the ocean. Microsoft recently submerged a 10 by 7-foot capsule, 30 feet underwater for 105 days to test for leakage and cooling potential. The company may eventually even incorporate turbines to use tidal energy to generate lower cost, sustainable electricity.

Equinix’s dedication to protecting, connecting and powering the digital economy has helped us extend our data center footprint to over 33 markets on five continents. There’s no doubt this growth requires us to use significant energy resources, but it also puts us in position to drive change within our industry.

With Earth Day approaching, we at the Interconnections blog thought the time was right to start a regular “green spotlight” series that highlights some of the distinctive ways Equinix data centers are saving energy and protecting the environment.

The reality is that thousands of Australian data centers are largely inefficient right now and we need to move with the demands of the times. The impact is not only environmental, but also fiscal as many of Equinix’s customers are realising through significant cost savings.