Cross-Connect Blog

5 Ways CPI Can Help Data Centers Achieve LEED Certification

July 24, 2014

 LEEDLeadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council recognizes best-in-class green building strategies and practices. To receive LEED certification, building projects must meet prerequisites and earn points to achieve different levels of certification. 

A LEED-certified data center is internationally recognized for being holistically sustainable and energy-efficient. Data centers can be LEED certified if they’re designed and equipped according to the Building Design and Construction framework.  

The newest version of the requirement includes the IT load and associated power and cooling energy use to the calculations. The new rating scale for data centers addresses unique challenges and allows for 110 possible points toward certification. Chatsworth Products (CPI) could contribute 12-24 credits toward this goal. 

Here are five ways Chatsworth Products (CPI) has helped many data centers around the globe achieve LEED certification:

  1. Use CPI’s GF-Series GlobalFrame® cabinets with Vertical Exhaust Ducts, a solution that promotes “free cooling” within the data center. This solution, along with other initiatives, led the largest telecom in Brazil,  Telefonica Vivo,  to become the country’s first to achieve LEED Gold certification.
  2. By incorporating a design with redundancies in power and security, as well as the usage of CPI Aisle Containment products, F-Series TeraFrame® cabinets with Vertical Exhaust Ducts and renewable energy sources, BendBroadband Vault achieved a power usage effectiveness (PUE) as low as 1.2, helping the company earn the LEED Gold stamp.
  3. Use CPI eConnect® PDUs to calculate IT energy closer to loads for more accurate PUE calculations and better define your energy-efficiency strategy.
  4. CPI Power Management Tool in conjunction with eConnect PDUs could contribute to 1 credit for Advanced Energy Metering toward LEED certification.
  5. Deploy CPI’s Aisle Containment products in conjunction with any number of various different effective economization technologies to reduce cooling energy budget by 40-90% and be eligible to earn up to 14 credits toward Optimizing Energy Performance category. 

Visit CPI’s Energy Efficiency page for more information.

Raissa Carey, eContent Specialist

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