SINGAPORE, Aug.18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, today announced that its water-saving initiative for cooling towers at its SIN10 facility has won the inaugural “Green Innovations: Water Solutions” award at the Singapore Environment Council’s 24th Singapore Environmental Achievement Awards (SEAA). The award recognizes businesses, groups, and individuals that have taken significant steps to drive innovation, reduce their environmental impact, and enhance the environment, society and economy in Singapore.
The first-of-its-kind in Singapore’s data center industry, the water-saving solution utilizes DeCaIon (DCI) electrolysis to eliminate the use of chemicals to treat blow-down water discharge – water that is drained from cooling equipment to remove mineral build-up – from the cooling towers in its chiller systems. This allowed Digital Realty to triple the number of times the same pool of water can be used at its SIN10 cooling towers, resulting in 1.24 million liters of water saved monthly. Monthly blow-down water discharge at SIN10 has reduced by 90%, while water usage efficiency (WUE) has improved by 15%, besting the Singapore Public Utilities Board’s industry benchmark of 2.6 Cu.m/MWh for data centers by 30%.
As a result of the significant sustainability gains from this project, Digital Realty is evaluating implementation of the solution across its global portfolio of 300+ data centers where applicable, to achieve similar resource efficiencies.
“As we gather to celebrate these outstanding organisations such as Digital Realty, it is evident that embracing innovation for sustainability is pivotal in driving transformative change and igniting progress across our region. By recognising and honouring these visionary endeavours, we reinforce Singapore’s unwavering commitment to sustainability. Together, we can continue shaping a brighter and greener future for generations to come,” said Isabella Huang-Loh, SEC Chairman.
“Sustainability is a core focus at Digital Realty, and we are honored to be recognized by the Singapore Environmental Council for our achievement and commitment to improving sustainability,” said Jon Curry, Vice President, Operations, Asia Pacific, Digital Realty. “From supporting the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority’s trial of new temperature standards for tropical data centers, contributing to research and development of new cooling solutions, to the use of renewable electricity sources where feasible, we continue to look across the breadth of our business to identify opportunities for innovations that can minimize environmental impact and set new benchmarks for sustainability in our industry,” he added.
Digital Realty seeks to lead the global data center industry in sustainable environmental performance, and was the first data center operator of its size and scale to commit to aggressive science-based emissions reductions targets. It has achieved a 43% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 (direct and indirect) emissions as of 2022.
For more information on sustainability at Digital Realty, please visit: https://www.digitalrealty.com/
About Digital Realty
Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 25+ countries on six continents. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.