AUSTIN, Texas — ClearTrace announced that Iron Mountain selected the company to provide hourly energy and carbon analysis for all of its data centers across the U.S.

“We are fully committed to achieving 100% clean energy for our data center customers, every hour of every day," said Chris Pennington, director of energy and sustainability at Iron Mountain Data Centers. “After a successful pilot with ClearTrace, we are excited for the insights their technology will provide in support of our commitment to 24/7 carbon-free energy. Knowing where we are throughout the journey toward complete decarbonization is critical for accurate reporting and credible results.”

ClearTrace is providing Iron Mountain with advanced digital infrastructure to analyze facility energy usage and carbon impact on a 24/7 hourly basis, delivering 100% traceable and verifiable energy and carbon records. The data and analysis ClearTrace provides will enable Iron Mountain to work with its suppliers to procure renewables that match its current hourly shortfalls and then achieve true 100% carbon-free energy consumption 24/7.

Iron Mountain, along with leaders, such as Google and Microsoft, is spearheading a new trend of 24/7 load-matched renewables as part of their decarbonization strategy. This 24/7 method, compared to purchasing renewables on an annual match basis, tangibly reduces carbon emissions and, according to a recent study by Princeton Zero Lab, will make the broader transition to 100% carbon free energy more affordable and achievable. Three of Iron Mountain’s campuses have already begun tracking 24/7 carbon-free energy performance, becoming the first large colocation data center provider with this capability. Now, with ClearTrace, its additional seven data center campuses can be tracked to the same level of granular hourly performance.

Data center carbon emissions are known for being both critical and difficult to decarbonize. For most large companies, data center carbon emissions are part of their “Scope 3” emissions, the types of emissions they need their vendors to decarbonize on their behalf.

“The world's top businesses need data to be stored in carbon-free data centers to achieve their ESG [environmental, social, and governance] goals,” said Lincoln Payton, CEO at ClearTrace. “We are honored to work with Iron Mountain to lead the path forward for 100% carbon-free data centers.”