September 9, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Global agriculture and genetic modification company Monsanto (monsanto.com) has announced its new data center at its World Headquarters in Creve Coeur is the first data center in Missouri to achieve Leadership in Energy Efficient Design certification.
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According to Monsanto’s announcement Tuesday, it is the third data center in the country to be certified by LEED, a nationally accepted benchmark for designing, constructing and operating green buildings administered by the US Green Building Council (usgbc.org).
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The new data center stores “Monsanto’s global computing solutions that support every area of the business, from analyzing data collected for molecular breeding to processing a customer’s seed order information,” according to the company.
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The new facility was designed by Fox Architects (fox-architects.com) and employed William Tao & Associates (wmtao.com) as the leading engineering firm. Construction began in early 2006.
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According to the company, “LEED certification complements Monsanto’s commitment to sustainability.”
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However, Monsanto has been the target of many environmentalists such as Vandana Shiva who has blamed the company for co-opting Indian wheat sub-species through global seed patents, forcing farmers to pay royalties to Monsanto to plant their local crops and decreasing biodiversity.
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To help its public image, Monsanto launched its Sustainable Yield Initiative in June, “a three-point commitment to develop better seeds, conserve resources, and help improve farmers’ lives.”
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For instance, in order to conserve resources, Monsanto is designing seeds that need fewer resources to grow and work with other organizations to address habitat loss and degradation of water quality in agriculture areas.
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As part of its initiatives to become more environmentally friendly, Monsanto global infrastructure lead Bob Koogler said the new data center employs natural technologies that are a step in the right direction.
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“The data center was designed and constructed to allow natural lighting into a very secure and redundant facility, which efficiently cools and powers Monsanto’s global computing environment,” Koogler said in a statement.
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Monsanto’s data center is joining only a small percentage of facilities with LEED certification. In August, Advanced Data Centers (adatacenters.com) announced its McClellan Park data center was pre-certified for LEED’s platinum standard. Digital Realty Trust (digitalrealtytrust.com) was the first data center to earn LEED gold certification when it completed auditing in November 2007.
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