(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — As data center developers continue to lead the way in environmental building, the US Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org) plans to update its building rating system, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, to address their specific design considerations, providing a more accurate reflection of their energy efficiency.
LEED technical development vice president Brendan Owens said USGBC is considering tailoring the LEED rating system to evaluate green data centers, according to a Reuters report. The non-profit organization is also working with groups including The Green Grid (www.thegreengrid.org) to establish technical benchmarks for green data centers.
LEED specifications have traditionally focused on five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. Some of these criteria do not work for data centers, which have very few – if any – on-location staff. Guidelines such as LEED’s encouragement of builders to use natural light, and include many windows, doesn’t make sense for data centers, which don’t require much lighting and windows can cause heat and cooling losses.
Accurate certification standards have been becoming increasingly important for data centers, which consume about 1.5 percent of the country’s total electricity use, according to US Environmental Protection Agency estimates, and it’s expected to exceed three percent by 2011.
Earlier in the week, wholesale data center provider Digital Realty Trust (www.digitalrealtytrust.com) earned a Gold LEED certification for commercial interiors (known as LEED-CI) for its 1500 Space Park facility in Santa Clara, California, making it the first building in Santa Clara to earn a LEED Gold certification.
