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CITI achieves first ever LEED platinum accreditation for a data centre

The LEED Rating System is designed to encourage and facilitate the development of more sustainable buildings and is a leading edge system for certifying the world’s greenest buildings. Not only is this award a world first, it certifies the data centre’s unique achievement in regard to sustainability and energy efficiency.
 
“Citi is committed to ensuring that sustainability lies at the heart of all our major projects and a major new data centre was no different,” said John Killey, Head of Citi Realty Services EMEA. “For this project a balanced approach was adopted that recognised Citi’s commitment to a sustainable approach for the building without compromise to its operation and reliability.”
 
“Close co-operation between our Real Estate and Technology groups has been important to achieving major advances in the way in which we manage technology energy demand in Citi,” said Stephen Ellis Head of Technology Infrastructure EMEA. “The energy efficient design of the data centre, coupled with extensive use of new, energy efficient virtualised technology, housed in innovative modular cabinets has optimized energy use and reduced the data cabling needs”.
 
“Building operations are nearly 40 per cent of the solution to the global climate change challenge,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “While climate change is a global problem, innovative firms like Citi are addressing it through local solutions.”
 
This environmentally conscious building has already been honoured for its ground breaking eco-friendly design with the prestigious European industry’s “Data Centre Excellence Green Energy Efficiency Award 2007” and the title of overall Winner at the Financial Services Technology (FTS) Magazine Award 2008.
 
Sustainability during the design, construction and operation phases was a primary consideration in the delivery of the 230,000 sq ft building. Its innovative design was executed with no increased cost over more conventional data centres and without adversely affecting reliability and resilience of the systems it houses.
 
Special attention was focused on the significant impacts of Energy, Water and Waste and notable features include:
 

• Uses 30% of the power required for services that a conventional data centre would use
• Optimised cooling design resulting in enhanced free cooling rate of 63%
• Reverse Osmosis water treatment for cooling saves 50M litres per annum
• Overall CO2 emissions reduction of 11,750 t/a
• Water efficient fixtures has reduced potable water use by 41% as well as utilizing harvested rainwater for 100% of the irrigation needs
• 100% of the Construction waste was diverted from the landfill and operational waste is segregated for recycling
• Material selection was a high priority item for Citi allowing both the LEED requirements and embodied energy calculations to influence the selection
• The recycled content of the materials specified on the project reached 27% with local sourcing of materials exceeding 40%.
• As an example of local consideration a vegetated roof area has been installed for 72% of the roof area as well as a full green wall irrigated from harvested rainwater
• Makes extensive use of virtualized technology, deployed in a modular design which both optimised energy usage and reduced the total amount of cabling required by 250km.

 
Other major Citi projects that have received LEED certification include data centres in Singapore and Georgetown, Texas, two Citi office parks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and a 15-story skyscraper in the New York City Borough of Queens.
 
Other special features of the building:
 

• Large reduction in installed plant & elimination of lead acid batteries by use of unique topology of Diesel Rotary Uninterrupted Power units (DRUPs) which reduce UPS running costs
• Green roofs minimise and reduce thermal gain into the data centre in summer months + green wall featuring indigenous plants and bio diversity fully irrigated by water
• Enhanced CRAC unit design reducing power consumption 9.3 kW to 3.3 kW per unit
• Advanced cooling tower design reducing power consumption from 74kW to 22 kW
• High quality work space environment featuring good daylight, natural ventilation and environmentally benign materials selected for the interiors
• Enhanced commissioning beyond best practice standards
• The office area provision features natural day lighting and ventilation via glazed facades with external louvres of White Oak as a renewable resource
• Landscaping includes generous green spaces throughout the site, the built mass being set back from the site boundaries buffered to all elevations with ‘garden zones’.
• Throughout the building green roofs, a living wall, soft landscaping to many external areas and extensive tree planting are used.