This article is part of the article.”Build: Connection“A series on high-tech powered, excellent business.
Data center operator Digital Realty is expanding its infrastructure to accommodate the growth of AI. But the tricky part is to do so in an eco-friendly way.
The International Energy Agency discovered in 2024 that data centers account for 1.5% of global electricity usage. By 2030, that number had almost doubled, reaching a level just above Japan's current annual energy consumption.
Furthermore, the AI infrastructure is cooled with a huge amount of water. A report from the University of Tulsa found that a single facility can use up to 5 million gallons per day. As governments and businesses are putting billions into AI infrastructure, the demand for these resources is only expected to increase.
Through close collaboration between sustainability, engineering and design teams, Digital Realty, which operates more than 300 data centers around the world, is working to reduce carbon emissions. This means procuring more renewable energy, upgrading cooling systems, and rethinking where and how new sites are built from scratch.
To understand how Digital Realty is preparing for its future, Business Insider spoke with Aaron Binkley, Vice President of Sustainability, and Shea McKeon, global head of design and engineering, about the company's sustainability strategy.
In a roundtable conversation, Binkley and McKeon share how teams work together to reduce emissions and balance business demand with sustainability goals, leading to the global AI trends of data centers.
Shea McKeon is the global head of design and engineering, and Aaron Binkley is Vice President of Sustainability at Digital Realty. Courtesy of Digital Realty
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Business Insider: How do the role and teams of Digital Realty contribute to the company's overall decarbonization strategy?
Aaron Binkley: My role is global. I oversee company-wide sustainability initiatives, including work on collaborations on renewable energy, decarbonization, development and construction, in-service data center operations, green finance, clean energy, energy performance, water and more. A big part of my job is to act as a convener, bring people together, ensure we work together, and bring the best ideas to the surface.
Shea McKeon: I sit in the design, engineering and construction departments that oversee all new developments and major renovation projects around the world. We are responsible for working with operations and energy management to integrate sustainability into new builds and bring existing facilities to modern standards.
Digital Realty has ambitious targets to reduce direct and indirect emissions per square foot and supply chain emissions by 60%. By 2030 each. How do teams work together to achieve these goals?
Binkley: We are thinking about how we build, power, and operate sustainable data centers. This starts with understanding emissions throughout the data center lifecycle. Design and Construction Impacts: Total emissions related to the materialized carbon or data center lifecycle, from metal extraction to construction to disposal of equipment. Operationally, it's all about power usage. Therefore, we will work closely with the energy procurement team and the strategic team to remove electricity supply.
For emissions in range 1, which refer to direct emissions from sources owned by our company, we are primarily switching from burning diesel, a backup generator, to renewable fuels such as hydrotriating vegetable oil, which is a diesel-like fuel that has been deployed at 17% of our operational portfolio. However, 98% of the emissions of scopes 1 and 2, including indirect emissions from purchased energy, come from electricity, and are large nuts that need to crack. We prioritize opportunities based on where we can make the biggest impact, design efficient facilities and power them with renewable energy.
McKeon: On the Scope 3 Emissions side, I think it's indirect emissions from the data center supply chain. This can really impact my team. We are always working with our design and construction partners to ensure that we specify the right materials to help us defeat these emissions. It's always at the forefront of our design.
We also partner with Aaron's team during our annual business reviews with our major suppliers. We've just put them together recently, and Scope 3 emissions were one of the topics we discussed. What we can do to help our suppliers perform and improve. This is an endless iterative process, but it is key to advancement in collaboration.
AI models create demand for computing power. How do you balance this balance between growth and sustainability goals?
Binkley: I've seen AI come. It's right in front of my mind now, and most of my bookings are AI-related. As the portfolio grows, it has not regained its commitment to sustainability. We have made strong progress in procurement and decarbonization of renewable energy. We plan it and as AI drives greater demand, we adjust the plan: rethinking sourcing, more integrated with acquisitions, and engaged early in planning and design. When acquiring land, we are part of an early utility conversation, seeking clean energy solutions before moving the dirt.
It also uses AI internally to improve energy and water efficiency. We developed an internal program called Apollo AI to optimize the building management system across our portfolio. The platform proposes improvements that will help facility engineers find hidden anomalies like clogged filters and leaky valves, and help to promote energy savings. There are also AI tools focused on water systems, which help fine-tune cooling performance and water chemistry to reduce waste. We are trying to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of the energy and water we consume.
McKeon: 100% of future buildings have the ability to deploy liquid cooling directly to the chip, so coolant removes heat through metal plates attached to the graphics processing unit. For those who don't, our engineering team is building a roadmap so if customers want to use energy-intensive technologies such as generator AI that require high levels of computational power, they are ready. A modular design approach helps you learn and adapt quickly. And with liquid cooling, you no longer need area per megawatt. It is trying to change how the building is designed.
What are the biggest challenges in aligning technical engineering requirements and sustainability goals?
Binkley: Our sustainability standards are part of our building standards, but the maximum amount of emissions we can reduce at our facilities will still vary based on customer use. Some customers move completely to the data center and operate at high strength. Others are leaning slowly. Modularity helps to handle these variations. The speed of growth is also a challenge. You need to anticipate customer demand, align renewable energy, and predict equipment needs that take a long time to procure. We're building physical infrastructure, and this takes years. You cannot flip the switch.
McKeon: We are a multi-tenant facility. Because we leased space to our customers, while controlling our infrastructure, our customers ultimately control how they operate within that space. It can be actively designed with energy efficiency in mind, and best practices such as airflow containment and optimal temperature setting are recommended. But at the end of the day, customers do not decide how to use the equipment.
It's cut a bit. Our engineering teams can build sustainability features, but the operations team must be reactive depending on how each tenant is deployed. Some customers run with great use from an efficiency standpoint. Others use combinations of equipment that can move slowly or affect the operation of the facility. So there is a boundary between what we can control and what we can influence.
Luckily, our operations team is extremely sophisticated. Adapt in real time using automation, data, and AI, dial temperatures, manage airflow, and everything runs as efficiently as possible.
How are you evolving your decarbonization strategy over the next few years?
Binkley: We're not pulling back our commitment. We stay on the course and will probably be more aggressive. Clean energy is hard to procure now, but it is still usable. We have been able to ensure renewable energy that offers real value and reduces costs. We also go deep into Scope 3 with our supplier engagement program and work with vendors to reduce the carbon footprint of the materials and products we purchase.
McKeon: I echo it. Sustainability is embedded in the design process. It's not just a benchmark, it's part of our culture. Our local teams are empowered to innovate projects on a project-by-project basis, and our global teams always share best practices. What works in France could be relevant in Chicago. It is a contagious and exciting environment.
