Certification covers the entirety of its 445,000 square foot, 32-megawatt facility
QTS Realty Trust, a leading provider of software-defined and mega-scale data center solutions, announced today that its new Ashburn mega data center has achieved the prestigious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
LEED is an industry-leading environmental sustainability rating system developed by the USGBC. It has become the most widely used green building rating system in the world and an international symbol of excellence in green building. Its stringent standards of quality and integrity ensure electricity cost savings, lower carbon emissions and healthier environments for the places we live, work, learn and play.
QTS Ashburn’s LEED certification encompasses the entirety of the 445,000 square foot data center facility that also features office space for both customers and QTS’ Northern Virginia-based employees.
LEED certification is an important part of QTS’ comprehensive environmental and sustainability initiatives documented in its Environmental, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) report. QTS owns and operates 26 data centers globally with a goal of achieving LEED certification in 90% of owned facilities by 2025, up from 60% today.
Also read:QTS Releases Industry-first Open Source Standard for Data Center Management
QTS Ashburn is the first three-story data center in Ashburn. It offers 178,000 square feet of raised floor and 32 megawatts of critical power capacity optimized for enterprise, hyperscale and build-to-suit solutions. The facility features a standardized design across 12 column free data halls and highly flexible mechanical and cooling to facilitate scalability and rapid delivery.
QTS broke ground on the undeveloped land in late 2017 and completed this greenfield construction in just 10 months. The Company attributes its ability to quickly deliver a fully powered shell and 4 megawatts of initial turnkey capacity to an innovative modular design, combined with scalable mechanical and electrical systems. In addition, the property features an additional 16 acres of adjacent land designated for future expansion.
“QTS is committed to leading the industry in sustainability and environmental responsibility,” said Travis Wright, Vice President of Energy and Sustainability – QTS. “We have aggressive, documented goals for renewable energy usage, water reclamation, waste recycling and operational efficiency and we look forward to reporting on our progress.”
QTS Ashburn and its expanding Northern Virginia footprint complements QTS’ 1.3 million square foot Richmond data center that features abundant connectivity including the new MAREA and BRUSA subsea cables that terminate in the data center.
