ITC Limited’s Sankhya in Bengaluru has become the world’s first data centre to be certified as LEED Zero Carbon. The facility has been awarded the certification by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), which recognizes net zero carbon emission from a building over a period of 12 months. The certification is valid for 3 years, with the requirement of a net zero report to be submitted every year.
ITC Sankhya earned this global distinction six years after being certified as the world’s first LEED Platinum data centre by USGBC. It is a recognition of its efforts to save 25%-30% energy, as compared to any other data centre, as well as reduce overall carbon emissions through reducing traveling of the employees and other measures. The USGBC recognition is based on a comprehensive calculation that accounts for net zero carbon emission after deducting CO2 emission avoided/offset from CO2 emitted through electricity/fuel consumption and transportation.
ITC’s large-scale efforts in decarbonisation will make a meaningful contribution to the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of India transitioning to a net zero economy by 2070.
Commenting on the centre’s exemplary achievement, B Sumant, Executive Director, ITC Limited said, “ITC has been strengthening its contribution to climate positive, sustainable and inclusive growth. As part of our accelerated decarbonisation efforts, we have spearheaded multi-dimensional interventions to lower our carbon footprint including expanding our renewable energy and green buildings portfolio. The company has been carbon positive for over 17 years. We take pride that the ITC Sankhya is today an icon of environmental stewardship. We embarked on this mission of transforming the data centre into a LEED Zero Carbon building in 2016. Towards this, focused initiatives were implemented including re-engineering the facility’s design, introducing efficient cooling systems, sensor-based lighting, establishing an active building management system, energy-efficient power backup systems, an intelligent network cabling system, etc. All of this contributed to optimizing energy consumption”.
Effective and vigilant operation and maintenance of the unit with SOPs and KPIs aimed at improving the energy performance of the building further as compared with the designed parameters kept pushing the conservation bar higher. Additionally, the power required for the unit was fully fed through the wheeling of renewable energy sources.
