The NTT America data center in Ashburn, Virginia has earned a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification, the company said today. LEED is a voluntary rating system for energy efficient buildings overseen by the US Green Building Council (USGBC).
The NTT America facility is the latest in a small but growing number of data centers that have gained LEED certification. The LEED standard was designed for commercial office buildings, but a coalition of data center industry groups has released a draft of an energy-efficiency standard to expand the program with customized specs for data centers.
"We are very proud to announce the LEED Gold Certification of our Ashburn facility," said Tarif Abboushi, Vice President of Data Center Infrastructure, NTT America. "The certification enables us to provide our customers with access to a state-of-the-art green facility."
Data center customers are increasingly interested in the energy efficiency of their hosting operations, whether they're hosted in-house or in a third-party data center. The growing number of new sites seeking LEED status signals the emergence of the USGBC benchmark as a potential differentiator for customers concerned about the potential for new environmental regulations down the road.
In addition to its LEED certification, NTT America will also help its Ashburn customers meet their corporate "green IT" goals with Carbon Balanced Hosting, a carbon offset program that enables customers to offset the carbon footprint of their IT equipment.
NTT America’s portfolio of managed services in the Ashburn facility includes managed storage, security, sack-up, virtual hands and professional services.
