You might not know it unless you have worked in a data center on a daily basis, but a lot goes in to the day-to-day maintenance of these places. I recently got a chance to visit our Santa Clara and Dallas data center facilities and let me tell you… there are checklists for checklists, 24/7 staff, alerts and security — it’s an intense regiment to keep up. But what’s more is the design and planning that went in to making sure everything works together in perfect unison — for example, keeping the environment at just the right temperature to house equipment, ensuring the humidity level is correct for optimal performance and making certain the right power infrastructure is in place so there is no downtime. Not to mention adding the complexity of sustainability requirements on top!! Whew! Some masterful engineering is definitely taking place here, which is why I have to give a huge shout out to all those involved in helping us earn Silicon Valley Power’s 2012 Energy Innovator Award.
Our Silicon Valley data center earned this year’s award, which recognizes one organization annually that exhibits superior efforts in supporting energy efficiency and renewable energy. Santa Clara Mayor Jaime Matthews presented our team with the award at the 12th Annual Energy Summit, organized by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
An independent panel of judges named us the winner of the Energy Innovator Award for successfully implementing a wide range of conservation strategies at our Santa Clara data center. Here are a few of the most notable initiatives our first class team implemented to help us achieve this honor:
- Reduced overall energy use by 49% as compared to similar building types and earned a perfect score of 100 from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Performance Rating System
- Saved 76,300 gallons of water per day and 27,849,500 gallons per year (the equivalent of 46.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools of potable water annually!!)
- Reused more than 99% of the exterior structural components, avoiding the diversion of nearly 85% of its construction waste to landfills
- Utilized high-efficiency lighting, HVAC systems and controls to decrease power consumption by more than 30%
Congrats again to everyone that helped make this award possible! You guys rock!
Interested in Silicon Valley colocation? Learn more by reading the green data center profile on our Santa Clara facility.
