Green Building Elements

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When the Internet extended its wiry tentacles to the small town that I grew up in, I had no idea what it was. I pictured it being a room full of wires and lights, like a super computer android version of a phone operator.

As I matured, I realized it wasn’t that at all, but a more mystic existence of floating pockets of digital information in constant flux, existing in digital clouds that were suspended just above the atmosphere.

Of course, neither of those images is or was correct. But as it turns out, I was closer to the target with my first guess. Massive server rooms take up space and energy all over the world, storing the information and websites we web junkies feed on for survival. Luckily, they are starting to go green.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc., a technology real estate company, has taken a bold step into the green world by renovating a 90-year-old printing facility in Chicago. They have turned the plant into the world’s first LEED gold-certified data center. Not only is this a paradigm shift for future data centers—it may change the way LEED building companies approach renovations.

“This project shatters the myth that LEED certification can only be achieved within newer facilities,” says Jim Smith, vice president of engineering at Digital Realty.

LEED Certification is a rating system created by the U.S. Green Building Council. The system provides a whole-building approach to sustainability by considering the qualities of water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality, among others.

The Digital Realty Trust project transformed a portion of the 1917 R.R. Donnelly & Sons Co. printing plant into 20,000 square feet of of floor space with 4,000kW of available IT load.

One of the things that, I think, makes this project such a powerful one is the use of special tools the space uses for measuring energy consumption.

“These are not expensive, but they provide critical data that let you understand what is happening in the data center. Every data center should have this, particularly since it is such a small investment and provides such valuable information,” Smith said. “Step 1 for energy-efficient operations is always to have a way to measure.”

I hope this catches on. It would be a relief to know that while I’m blogging about building green, the IT resources my blog requires are helping the cause.

Photography: worldofstock.com