Iron Mountain Incorporated® has announced that its data center business unit has joined the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Better Buildings Initiative as a Challenge Partner. Iron Mountain becomes the first FISMA High-compliant data center operator to commit at this level and has pledged to reduce data center energy intensity by 20% over a ten-year period.
“Data center power consumption continues to increase in conjunction with the incredible demand for IT services and resources that power today’s digital world,” said Dana Adams, Iron Mountain vice president of data center portfolio and operations. “As an environmentally responsible data center operator, we understand that an ongoing commitment to improve energy efficiency is the best way to serve our customers. We are innovating to stay ahead of the curve on energy efficiency and are excited to participate in the Better Buildings Initiative.”
The Better Buildings Initiative is a Presidential leadership initiative, which calls on chief executive officers, university presidents, and federal, state and local government leaders to motivate significant improvements in energy efficiency across the United States. Data center operators across governments, academia and private industry can engage with the DOE to learn best practices from industry partners and their customers, who have committed to continuously improve data center Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).
“Better Buildings partners demonstrate how powerful a public-private partnership dedicated to solving a specific problem can be,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. “Bringing energy efficiency to scale is a national priority. We applaud the dedication of Iron Mountain to come up with innovative solutions that advance our nation’s ability to reduce carbon emissions, and spur economic savings in our businesses and communities.”
“Joining the DOE’s Better Buildings Initiative demonstrates Iron Mountain’s commitment to addressing the unique needs of the federal community,” said Michael Lewis, general manager of Iron Mountain Government Services. “This will also help drive our own sustainability goals forward, delivering an efficient data center environment for federal agencies who are under pressure to meet mandated consolidation, optimization and continuity requirements.”
Iron Mountain’s Better Buildings commitment applies to data center facilities in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City. The goal will be achieved by increasing the utilization of naturally occurring energy efficient data center features such as geothermal cooling and naturally chilled recycled water. Additionally, Iron Mountain will deploy infrastructure innovations such as air and water-side economization as well as improved containment. These innovations further optimize Iron Mountain’s data centers for federal requirements such as Continuity of Operations and Continuity of Government. Iron Mountain has a proven track record of building energy efficient facilities with a full portfolio of data centers capable of meeting the exacting requirements for sustainability planning in Presidential Executive Order 13693.
