By David Hamilton, theWHIR.com
September 19, 2008 — (Web Host Industry Review) — Data center management and holding company Digital Realty Trust (digitalrealitytrust.com) has announced it is building a data centre that has been awarded the first BREEAM (breeam.org) “Excellent” rating in the UK from the Building Research Establishment’s environmental certification program.
The ?Excellent’ rating for design and procurement is BREEAM’s highest available rating, measuring the energy efficiency and environmentally-sound construction and operations practices. BREEAM is an environmental assessment method for buildings in the UK similar to the LEED standard in the US.
According to Digital Realty Trust’s announcement Thursday, its new, 10,000 square metre data center in south England was acquired by the company in April 2007 to add global computing infrastructure for banking and finance firm HSBC (hsbc.com).
Digital Realty Trust partnered with the CHt Data Solutions division of the Laing O’Rourke Group (laingorourke.com) to construct the facility.
The HSBC datacentre’s certification came after two years of assessments on sustainability initiatives, innovative design and project management. Digital Realty Trust and HSBC estimate significant energy savings and resultant reduction in power cost and CO2 emissions from this datacentre once it is operational.
“We are very proud of this datacentre and proud that it has been recognised as the first to meet the very high environmental standards of the BREEAM Excellent rating…. We believe this facility sets a new standard for datacentres in Europe,” Digital Realty Trust Europe senior vice president Bernard Geoghegan said in a statement.
“This is the latest in a long list of industry firsts that Digital Realty Trust has achieved for energy efficiency and environmental responsibility in the datacentre field,” he said. “We were the first company to achieve LEED Gold certification for a datacentre in the United States, the first company to adopt the Green Grid’s PUE energy efficiency measurement protocol, and the first company to publicly publish energy efficiency data about its facilities.”
