Digital Realty’s Water-Saving Initiative Wins Green Innovations Award

Digital Realty, the global provider of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions, has been awarded the inaugural “Green Innovations: Water Solutions” award the Singapore Environment Council. The award recognizes Digital Realty’s water-saving initiative for cooling towers at its SIN10 facility in Singapore.

The water-saving solution, the first of its kind in Singapore’s data center industry, utilizes DeCaIon (DCI) electrolysis to eliminate the need for chemicals in treating blow-down water discharge. This water is typically drained from cooling equipment to remove mineral build-up. By using DCI electrolysis, Digital Realty has tripled the number of times the same pool of water can be used at its SIN10 cooling towers, resulting in a monthly water saving of 1.24 million liters.

This initiative has reduced the monthly blow-down water discharge at SIN10 90% and improved water usage efficiency (WUE) 15%. This exceeds the industry benchmark set the Singapore Public Utilities Board for data centers 30%.

Digital Realty is now considering implementing this water-saving solution across its global portfolio of 300+ data centers to achieve similar water-saving efficiencies. The company aims to lead the data center industry in sustainable environmental performance and has already committed to aggressive science-based emissions reduction targets, achieving a 43% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions as of 2022.

Numerous sustainability initiatives have been undertaken Digital Realty, including supporting the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority’s temperature standards trial for tropical data centers and exploring renewable electricity sources wherever possible.

“Sustainability is a core focus at Digital Realty, and we are honored to be recognized the Singapore Environmental Council for our achievement and commitment to improving sustainability,” said Jon Curry, Vice President, Operations, Asia Pacific, Digital Realty. “We continue to look for opportunities to innovate and minimize our environmental impact, setting new benchmarks for sustainability in our industry.”

Source: Digital Realty