Equinix employees are passionate about the environment and Equinix is committed to cultivating that passion by bringing their priorities to life in the offices they occupy every day. We do this by fostering sustainability in the workplace through office design and employee engagement.
Though our offices represent only a small proportion (~1%) of our overall energy consumption, Equinix recognizes the value in cascading our emissions reduction efforts throughout the organization. In 2021, our largest offices improved and implemented data collection for all Scope 1 and 2 energy usage to create a new baseline. Our Top 10 offices globally will set energy reduction targets aligned with our global corporate emissions targets by the end of the 2022 fiscal year. Beyond energy savings, our 2022 office plans include participating in our annual global procurement for either direct renewable energy or renewable energy credits to support progress against these newly set goals.
Our global design guidelines for our office spaces incorporate sustainability as a key aspect of our operations and leasing processes. The guidelines contain global design and construction standards which reimagine the efficient use of space and integrate closely with our Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB) approach.
In 2021 we changed our leasing approach to proactively consider sustainability criteria in new leases. Our real estate teams must use a newly created checklist, based on our green lease considerations established in 2020, when negotiating with landlords. This checklist includes questions around the availability of renewable energy, metering of energy and water and monitoring of waste and other adverse environmental impacts.
We seek to reduce waste through our tenant programs. For example, we negotiate our ability to market space with the existing fit-outs when subleasing to an incoming tenant; this reduces the potential for creating waste through needless retrofitting.
This work builds on existing efforts to improve resource efficiency in our office spaces, such as:
Here are a few examples in recent years of how our team has advanced environmental sustainability within our offices worldwide:
Americas
EMEA
Asia-Pacific
We want to empower our employees to support our sustainability efforts; with their buy-in and engagement, we can maximize our positive impact. To embed a culture of sustainability within the organization, in 2020 we rolled out training modules on sustainability topics foundational to Equinix’s work, such as understanding climate change, Net Zero buildings, and the benefits of measuring and reporting environmental impacts. The deployment of these on-demand e-learning modules will help employees connect their daily activities with global environmental challenges.
We are also leveraging new local employee engagement mechanisms to promote education and action on environmental sustainability by our employees and in our communities. “Green and Sustainable” is one of six themes of our WeAreEquinix local groups which are a key aspect of our growing Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging strategy.
Building on the virtual engagement kickstarted during the rise of COVID-19 in 2020, Equinix employees continued to engage within offices and their communities toward environmental efforts. Our Equinix Impact Exchange enables employees to access matching gifts to fund causes important to them. A summary of environmental-related donations is below.
In Singapore, Equinix has embarked on a series of local Community and Environmental activities to raise awareness on the importance of giving back to our society and to address Singapore’s 2030 Green Plan priorities, which align well with our own commitments. Led by our local WeAreEquinix team, a local employee volunteer group, these initiatives focus on three areas: Sustainability projects, Community Development, and Greenspace Projects.
SDG # | SDG Category | Volunteer Hours 2021 | Volunteer Hours 2015-2021 | Donations 2021 | Donations 2015-2021 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
6 | Clean Water and Sanitation | 0 | 26 | $62,187 | $86,494 |
11 | Sustainable Cities and Communities | 4,305 | 16,100 | $600,611 | $2,229,157 |
15 | Life on Land | 1,047 | 4,500 | $124,623 | $334,458 |
Advocacy is a hallmark of our strategy as we leverage the buying power of many companies through a single voice