365 Main Becomes First Data Center Developer/Operator To Adopt LEED

Data center developer and operator 365 Main recently announced a commitment to full compliance with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System put forth by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

The company also announced the development of a new data center in Newark, Calif., the first LEED-certified data center in the country. Design and construction has already begun on the 136,410-square-foot facility, which is slated to open in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The aggregate power consumption by servers and data centers in the United States has more than doubled since 2000 to about 45 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2005, accounting for about 1.2 percent of the country's electricity consumption, roughly equal to the power drawn by the nation's color televisions. According to a 2007 report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Dr. Jonathan G. Koomey, the electricity costs for the servers and associated infrastructure reached $2.7 billion in 2005 and is increasing steadily.

365 Main is addressing rising energy consumption concerns with efficiency improvements, including:

• Recycled and regionally sourced construction materials.
• Computer Room Air Handlers (CRAHs) that consume 30 percent less energy than traditional CRAHs by allowing air conditioning units to intelligently ramp up and down to achieve required under-floor air pressure.
• Make Up Air Handler units with outside air economizers that use 100 percent outside air on days when the temperature is cool enough to achieve data center cooling requirements.
• Various other improvements, including energy-efficient lighting, lighting controls, water-efficient landscaping and alternative transportation modifications.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. It was developed by the USGBC and is continuously refined via an open, consensus-based process that has made it the green building standard of choice for federal agencies and state and local governments nationwide.

LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health:

• Sustainable site development
• Water savings
• Energy efficiency
• Materials selection
• Indoor environmental quality

Last month, 365 Main announced that it had joined The Green Grid, a global nonprofit consortium of technology companies and professionals dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems.