Leading a More Sustainable Future

Bill Stein, CEO
April 30, 2020

The past few weeks have placed data centers into the spotlight. With a significant rise in remote working, digital services and digital communications, data centers—including Digital Realty’s 267 data centers around the world—are being recognized as a central nervous system of the digital economy. While we are proud to deliver an essential service to so many businesses in this challenging time, we also recognize the impact this may have on long-term sustainability.

Here at Digital Realty, we believe we have an obligation to identify and implement ways to decarbonize the power sourced for our data centers, drive greater energy efficiency and curb carbon emissions. For many years we have been leading in this space by pioneering the use of renewable energy solutions, energy conservation and green building features in our facilities. Today we are taking another significant step in our sustainability journey by becoming the first data center operator of our size and global reach to commit to setting a target with the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).

The Science-Based Targets Initiative is a collaboration of 860+ companies globally, committed to setting carbon emission reduction targets backed by climate science rather than internally self-defined parameters. Digital Realty will partner with SBTi to develop precise targets by year-end. Additionally, we are committing to bring our emissions in-line with a significantly below two-degree climate change scenario by 2030. We look forward to sharing more with our customers and partners in the months ahead.

Working with the SBTi is a logical next step for Digital Realty. The group’s standards are complementary to our long-term goal to become 100% renewably powered, and we will accelerate initiatives we already have in place to continue to lower our greenhouse gas emissions. We will also build on our efforts in green bonds, renewable energy, energy efficiency, water stewardship, climate change resilience and green building to find new and innovative solutions to curb emissions directly in our facilities—and, throughout our supply chain globally, from London to Singapore to New York to Texas.

Sustainable solutions consistently show they can compete with—and beat—“business-as-usual” solutions. Joining this initiative is a significant opportunity to deliver a more sustainable platform of solutions to our customers and the global economy.

We hope more in our industry will join us so that together we can grow our industry and the digital economy while addressing climate change and driving sustainable innovation.

You can learn more about Digital Realty's sustainability initiatives here, including our latest wind energy agreement in Texas.