environment
Circularity
Investment in circular practices is necessary to deliver resilient digital infrastructure that supports our customers’ sustainability goals.
Waste and circularity
We aim to craft solutions that enable us to minimize and dispose of waste responsibly throughout the life cycle of our buildings.
Equinix’s waste primarily originates from data center construction activities and operations. Once an IBX® is operational, our business activities are the main waste generators—predominantly in the form of old equipment that has reached the end of its useful life or packaging from new equipment.
ISO 14001 standards guide our waste management practices, including for hazardous waste and e-waste, and we intend to certify all sites to this standard by 2027. As of 2024, 44% of sites were certified.
We launched our Global Circularity Program in 2024 and have made strides in centralizing our data management system and aligning our global practices. Identifying the best ways to collect and manage data has been a challenge due to regional differences in data standards, waste types and regulations. The program will help streamline data collection, improve accuracy and support a more consistent approach to circularity tracking. This will ultimately provide valuable insights to inform and refine our circularity strategy.
It is important to highlight that while construction and operational waste constitutes a significant part of our overall waste footprint, the data collected to date, along with internal audits of various global projects, shows that our construction and operational activities typically achieve high rates of waste diversion from landfill.
Construction
Data helps us make informed decisions about how to reduce waste. In 2024, we introduced a new clause in our contract template with general contractors that aims to improve our understanding of waste generation and disposal. The clause requires general contractors to:
- Align project Waste Management Plans (WMPs) with ISO 14001.
- Report data on excavation, demolition and construction waste in a standardized format that facilitates large-scale data ingestion.
- Implement proper waste sorting practices to facilitate the effective management of waste streams.
- Meet targets for waste diversion and recycling rates.
The clause also encourages our construction partners to repurpose excavation waste.
Operations
Our approach to diverting waste from active data centers and offices is twofold: prolonging the life of equipment and increasing recycling.
Giving equipment a second useful life diverts waste from landfill and avoids the need for new production. In 2024, we redeployed 86% of excess Equinix-owned server hardware for a second useful life. We are also exploring ways to repurpose other components, such as cabinets, for use outside our data centers.
We recently updated our Global Design and Construction (GDC) & Operations standards to improve operational waste management infrastructure. The guidelines dictate disposal pathways for various waste types and specify that new builds should include designated areas for waste sorting and disposal. When a customer sends new equipment to an IBX, it is directed to a dedicated unboxing room where we manage the collection and disposal of all packaging materials.
We support circular economy principles with our Responsible Electronic Disposal (RED) program, which facilitates proper waste handling for company owned equipment that is excess or obsolete. In 2024, RED facilitated the responsible disposal of over 13 metric tons of excess and obsolete inventory. We safeguard data during disposal by adhering to frameworks established by organizations such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), e-stewards, R-2 and ISO 14001, and ISO 9001.
Our office activities are generally not very waste intensive. However, we strive to reduce waste from our corporate spaces where possible. Since 2017, we have provided water dispensers in our offices to encourage employees to drink from reusable water bottles rather than single-use bottles or cans. As of December 2024, these machines have offset the need for nearly 700,000 bottles and cans—mitigating over 135 MTCO2e.
Heat recovery and export
Running servers in our data centers generates heat. Rather than letting the heat generated go to waste, we are developing partnerships that allow us to collect heat and redeploy it for use in our communities. Exporting heat is a circular solution that has the potential to reduce the need to combust the higher emitting, fossil-based energy sources that typically heat homes. With over a decade of experience recovering and exporting heat, Equinix is at the forefront of this emerging movement.
In 2024, we began recovering and exporting heat at three additional facilities: one in Paris, France, and two in Helsinki, Finland. One of the Helsinki locations alone is forecast to export enough heat to warm over 1,000 homes in the local community. Across five sites currently performing heat recovery and export, nearly 11,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e)1 may be avoided per year, dependent on actual conditions.
The maturity of heat recovery and export technology varies greatly across regions. We share our knowledge with peers through the European Union Data Center Alliance, working to create technical guidance for implementing heat export more widely. Our industry can reduce our climate impact by closing an inefficient loop and help our communities by supplying low-cost heat.
1 Based on the total projected annual heat export of approximately 35 GWh per annum when sites have reached a steady operational state.
Case Study
Heating the Paris Olympics
In 2024, a Paris-based Equinix data center exported heat to warm the Saint-Denis Olympic Aquatic Center (OAC) for the 2024 Summer Olympics. We collaborated with local planning authorities (SMIREC) and a utility partner (Engie) to develop a heating network for the Plaine Saulnier district that houses the OAC. With 6.6 MW of heat export capacity, this network is projected to save 2,000 MTCO2e per year. Long after the Olympic closing ceremonies, our heat continues to warm over 1,000 homes in the surrounding neighborhoods.
