environment
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Our focus on decarbonization allows us to grow our digital infrastructure more sustainably while helping our customers achieve their climate goals.
Our strategy centers around implementing energy efficiency initiatives to optimize energy usage, piloting low-carbon energy solutions and collaborating with our suppliers to address emissions within our value chain.
In 2024, we furthered our climate action efforts by:
- Verifying our goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gases by 2040 with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). Verification validates our decarbonization strategy, demonstrating that our foundational work and the initiatives we have set in motion will help achieve goals that are aligned with the most up to date climate science.
- Building a suite of data and analytics tools with life cycle assessment (LCA) capabilities that will provide us with the right insights and knowledge to support the execution of our net-zero strategy.
- Furthering our supplier engagement efforts to have them develop their own science-based targets.
- Engaging suppliers to collect primary data. Improving our understanding of emission sources allows us to develop interventions to meaningfully reduce our impact and, in turn, that of our customers.
- Expanding our renewable energy portfolio through the execution of five new power purchase agreements and achieving our seventh year in a row with 90%+ global renewable energy coverage.
- Updating service-level agreements for new sites to allow for the implementation of A1A standards and save cooling energy without compromising processing power.
- Targeting embodied carbon reductions in priority commodities and measuring the resulting impact via several pilots that also helped establish processes for global implementation.
Case Study
Decarbonizing operations with alternative fuels
We use fuels to heat and cool our facilities, generate electricity and more. To mitigate the emission impact from conventional fuels, we are exploring the use of alternative energy sources.
In 2024, we tested hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) for stationary generation equipment and published a whitepaper on its use as a clean fuel source to support global decarbonization efforts and promote the market viability of HVO.
We are also working to expand our use of battery power to maintain our operations during grid outages. Batteries can supply electricity to our facilities and communities on a short-term basis during grid stress without impacting air quality.
Additionally, we are replacing grid energy with power from fuel cells where possible. Fuel cells may generate electricity at lower emissions rates than regional grids because they can consume low carbon fuels, either entirely or partially replacing the need for conventional fuels. In 2024, we installed 25 MW of fuel cells capable of running entirely on hydrogen or on a blend of hydrogen and other fuel sources at select locations, bringing our total with this capability globally to 72 MW.
72 MW
Fuel cells installed
285,000
mtCO2e Avoided
104 MW
Total fuel cells contracted
382 B
Gallons of embedded water use avoided
Targets
We have set ambitious climate goals, allowing our customers to harness the full potential of the digital economy with less impact on the environment.
Science-based targets (SBTs)
Reach net-zero GHG emissions across the value chain by 2040
- Reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 90% by 2040 from a 2019 base year
- Reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions 90% by 2040 from a 2019 base year
Reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 50% by 2030 from a 2019 base year
Reduce absolute Scope 3 emissions from fuel and energy related activities 50% by 2030 from a 2019 base year
66% of suppliers by emissions covering purchased goods and services and capital goods will have science-based targets by 2025
Renewable Energy
Achieve 100% clean and renewable energy across our global portfolio by 2030
Energy Efficiency
Achieve 1.33 PUE globally by 2030
Since 2015, Equinix has been committed to decarbonizing in line with the Paris Agreement’s objective to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Our total GHG footprint in 2024 was 1,747,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e), with 59,400 MTCO2e of Scope 1 emissions, 253,300 MTCO2e of Scope 2 market-based emissions and 1,435,000 MTCO2e of Scope 3 emissions.
We have experienced significant business growth in recent years, with our electricity consumption growing 50%, since 2019. We are excited to share that we have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 10% over this same time period. However, we do recognize that our Scope 1 emissions increased by 46% above 2023 levels. With our growth, we have expanded in markets where access to electricity from the grid is limited, resulting in a need to identify alternative sources of onsite power to meet the needs of our customers. To address this issue, Equinix is actively monitoring the development of low-carbon on-site power generation options and will implement solutions as they become feasible and scalable.
| Scope 1 | Scope 2 | Scope 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which emissions are significant? | Direct emissions from data center on-site consumption of diesel, hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), refrigerants and natural gas. | Indirect emissions from data center electricity usage, including fuel cells under power purchase agreements (PPAs) and chilled water from leased assets. | Indirect emissions from our supply chain, including construction, fuel and energy related activities (FERA). |
| What did we do in 2024? | We strove to combust less fuel and lower emission fuels to reduce Scope 1 emissions.
See the Offices section in Energy Efficiency and the alternative fuels case study above. |
We invested in energy efficiency initiatives and procured renewable energy to reduce Scope 2 emissions.
See Efficiency and Clean and Renewable Energy. |
We supported our suppliers’ decarbonization efforts, dematerialized our sites and selected low-emission building materials to reduce Scope 3 emissions.
See Supply Chain Engagement (below) and Embodied Carbon |
| What is next? | We are building a toolbox of power options, such as HVO and fuel cells, and preparing for wider deployment when possible. The infrastructure we put in place now will position us to quickly take advantage of these sources when markets meet demand. | We are scaling our purchase of renewable energy and increasing the quality of our sources, with an emphasis on PPAs, to meet our goals and decarbonize our operations. | We are building the foundation of sophisticated tools that allow us to exchange embodied carbon data with our suppliers for specific products. |
1 All targets are against a 2019 baseline.
2 Suppliers in the Scope 3 categories of “Purchased Goods and Services” and “Capital Goods.”
Carbon trends
Supply chain engagement
Supplier manufacturing and other activities account for the majority of our Scope 3 emissions. As such, we cultivate relationships with key suppliers to reduce emissions and lessen our shared impact. As of 2024, 29% of Equinix suppliers by qualified emissions3 have set their own science-based GHG reduction targets—4% higher than in 2023—toward our goal of 66% by 2025.
Our Supplier Engagement program offers tailored solutions for suppliers at different stages of their journey—whether they need help setting targets or partnering to identify detailed embodied carbon statements for a specific product. For those engaged in setting near-term SBTs, we provide a dedicated hub with clear, step-by-step guidance on achieving SBTi verification, along with external resources to help reduce the cost and time involved in setting an SBTi-verified goal. Additionally, as part of our Third-Party Risk Management process we assess and monitor the sustainability performance of all Tier 1 suppliers across a broad range of topics.
Quantifying and tracking Scope 3 emissions is challenging, and engaging with suppliers is a key mechanism for improving data and practices. As part of our Supplier Engagement program, we invite select suppliers to report their inventories and strategies to CDP to improve the visibility of emissions within our value chain and across our industry.
3 Qualified emissions are those within the categories of Purchased Goods and Services and Capital Goods.
Collaboration
We engage with peers through organizations such as the European Union Data Center Alliance (EUDCA) and the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) to drive collective action.
Through our involvement with the EUDCA’s policy working group, we help advance climate legislation by participating in EU workshops and consultations on the Energy Efficiency Directive and other relevant legislative initiatives.
Our membership in CEBA reflects our dedication to scaling renewable energy. In 2024, we helped lead four training sessions on strategy development and executing clean and renewable energy transactions, reaching over 70 attendees from our customers and like-minded companies. Additionally, CEBA played a key role in advancing several regulatory and legislative efforts designed to increase access to clean and renewable energy, which helps Equinix, our customers and all companies with similar priorities achieve their sustainability goals.
We are actively involved in several industry and trade associations, including being founding members of the Asia-Pacific Data Center Association (APDCA), a regional trade association that represent the collective interest of the data center industry with stakeholders.
Global design guidelines
Building materials and the energy used in our data centers contribute significantly to our emissions footprint. Our Global Design Standards include a range of standards, including those related to sustainability, that establish minimum requirements and best practices for all new facilities and significant expansions. We regularly update the standards and our reference design—the blueprint we use to build our sites—to address emerging issues, incorporate new solutions and better mitigate the environmental and social impacts from constructing and operating our buildings.
Since 2021, we have required all new build sites to pursue LEED or an equivalent green building certification to demonstrate adherence to recognized sustainability best practices in design and construction. These certifications indicate that a project has met high standards of sustainability and environmental performance across categories such as energy and water efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable site development, materials and resources. Achieving LEED Gold or Platinum certification is one way a site may qualify as an Eligible Green Project under our Green Finance Framework.
In 2024, we provided feedback during the public comment period for LEED v5, advocating for the inclusion of sustainable features from data centers, such as heat export, in the guidance. Through this contribution, we aimed to help establish industry best practices and participate in the development of a comprehensive framework that recognizes the unique challenges and opportunities in our industry. We also conducted a gap analysis between LEED v4.1 and the new v5 to assess the impact of the changes on project certification levels. We are now assessing whether we need to update our standards or processes to better align with the new version.
Case Study
Building to LEED standards
In 2024, our WA4x data center earned Silver LEED certification after achieving significant sustainability milestones:
- Site selection: We built this new data center on previously developed land, thereby avoiding additional habitat alteration. Further, the site came equipped to support green vehicle infrastructure and benefits from access to quality transit.
- Materials and resources: The project used materials with Environmental Product Declarations, recycled content and chemical transparency certifications. Also, the building is constructed using reflective materials to facilitate heat island reduction.
- Energy efficiency: Through a comprehensive commissioning review of the basis of design, design documents and construction submittals, we identified opportunities to further optimize the building energy performance and achieved a reduction in energy use.
- Water: We eliminated the need for irrigation and reduced indoor water consumption compared to the baseline levels that would be achieved by using code-compliant features, without pursuing additional savings.
- Indoor environmental quality: We employed strategies like cross-contamination prevention, F7-level filtration and increased ventilation rates to enhance indoor air quality.
| Green building certifications | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Data centers | Metro area | Rating scheme | Level achieved |
| BG2 | Bogota | LEED | Silver |
| DB5x | Dublin | LEED | Certified |
| OS2x | Osaka | LEED | Certified |
| OS3 | Osaka | LEED | Silver |
| SL2x | Seoul | LEED | Silver |
| WA4x | Warsaw | LEED | Silver |
| ZH5 | Zurich | LEED | Certified |
The table above shows sites that earned certification during 2024.
