governance
Equinix has strong corporate values and a passion for building trust and connectivity among our stakeholders. We prioritize contributing to solutions that support these values, while at the same time helping others achieve their own goals. As policy makers increasingly focus on the data center industry, Equinix is stepping forward to communicate our distinctive value and to advocate for the industry.
Public Policy and Government Affairs
We believe our responsibility as a good corporate citizen includes active engagement to advance progress on our key public policy priorities. These include increasing access to clean energy, improving resilience in the energy sector, enabling a more connected and secure world, and advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace and communities. Our Public Policy and Government Affairs team is committed to working alongside a wide range of stakeholders at all levels of government across our platform, including local, regional, federal and international governments, as well as non-governmental, industry and civic organizations in the communities in which we operate. Managing Directors within each of our regions are engaged as public policy ambassadors and work to review policies in each region.
Equinix has established a cross-functional Public Policy Council comprised of executives with global responsibility to provide oversight and advice on relevant public policy concerns. Equinix’s Public Policy and Government Affairs team reports into Equinix’s Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory, Public Policy, Privacy and Compliance, and all activity in this area is reviewed and governed by our Executive Vice President, Global General Counsel in consultation with the Chief Legal and Human Resources Officer and the Board’s Nominating and Governance Committee.
Our Public Policy Activities guidance defines our approach to trade association engagements, political contributions and issue advocacy efforts.
Political Contributions Policy and Disclosure
Equinix prohibits independent expenditures by the company on behalf of candidates at any level of government. This includes political contributions made in support of, or against, a candidate or to a candidate’s campaign. Equinix does not have a Political Action Committee (PAC). Under the Equinix Code of Business Conduct, company employees are prohibited from making or committing to political contributions on behalf of Equinix.
In 2022, our score on the CPA-Zicklin Index remained steady with our strong 2021 score.
This consistency demonstrates our dedication to transparency and building trust
Equinix discloses the details of contributions or absence thereof—including identification of the organization or candidate, and amount contributed—in a political contributions report on a semi-annual basis.
As required by the Lobby Disclosure Act, Equinix files quarterly reports on its federal lobbying activities and expenditure. These reports can be accessed through the Lobby Contribution Filing Search page on the Lobbying Disclosure page of the U.S. Congress website.
In 2022, we lobbied both directly and through our involvement in trade associations such as the European Data Centre Association (EUDCA), the Data Center Coalition (DCC), and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). Learn more about our public policy activities here on our website.
Collaborating with our Peers
Equinix belongs to industry and trade associations in the United States and abroad. Our involvement and membership assists Equinix in remaining apprised of emerging issues and industry standards, analyze policy and political information, influence association focus and positions, and provide educational opportunities for Equinix employees. Through various forums, we are actively advocating for policies that promote the generation and use of renewable energy and other low-carbon alternatives. We also seek to support change that will build strong and thriving communities and will enable our data centers to play an integral role in the development that maximizes environmental and social benefits.
In Europe, we are a member of a national trade association in each of the fourteen countries that we operate in and belong to data center-specific national trade associations in nearly all of them. In 2022, Equinix was instrumental in establishing new data center trade associations in Italy and Spain, of which Equinix Managing Directors serve as Presidents.
Equinix’s membership in any trade association does not indicate our agreement with all views and positions taken by the association. As of December 31, 2022, we were active members of the following sample list of organizations and several members of our leadership team have taken active leadership roles in trade organizations denoted by an asterisk below:
Trade Organizations
- Alliance for Renewable Clean Energy (ARCHES)
- Asia Cloud Computing Association *
- Data Center Coalition (DCC) *
- Dutch Data Centre Association *
- European Data Centre Association (EUDCA) *
- Finnish Data Center Association (FDCA) *
- France Datacenter *
- German Datacenter Association *
- Host in Ireland *
- Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) *
- Italian Data Centre Association (IDA) *
- National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Nareit) *
- Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) *
- SPAIN DC *
- Swedish Data Center Industry Association (SDIA) *
- TechUK (United Kingdom) *
- US Colombia Business Council *
- US India Business Council *
Other Priority Groups:
- Nareit ESG Forum
- Clean Energy Buyers Alliance (CEBA) *
- CEO Action for Racial Equity
- RE100
Case Study: Working with EUDCA to change the industry
Equinix continues to deepen our engagement with the European Data Centre Association (EUDCA). We play an instrumental role within the EUDCA, driving the goal of data center carbon neutrality by engaging with policy makers on sustainability, energy and climate issues, in addition to other areas of policy.
The EUDCA has been very active in responding to over 50 of the public consultations held by the European Commission on the development of policy and legislation. Our Equinix representatives play a key role in meeting with EUDCA staff to determine which consultations the association will engage in. They then work with peer member companies to review, revise and finalize feedback on legislation.
Equinix led the EUDCA Public Perception Working Group in 2022, where we worked to enhance the public narrative around data centers. The group produced a short video describing what a data center is, how we all use data centers every day and how data centers are leaders in sustainability. This group also produced a Q&A document with high-level information on data centers that various stakeholders can use to communicate what we do.
Equinix, as a board member of EUDCA, spearheaded the development of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact (The Pact). The Pact establishes a Self-Regulatory Initiative for cloud service providers and data center operators, which commits Equinix and other data center signatories to set measurable and ambitious targets for 2025 and 2030 in the following areas:
- Carbon neutrality by 2030
- Improve the efficiency of energy use
- Purchase 100% carbon-free energy
- Prioritize water conservation through the selection of efficient and appropriate cooling solutions
- Reuse, repair and recycle servers, electrical equipment, and other related electrical components
- Reuse data center heat where practical, environmentally sound, and cost-effective
The Pact, with Equinix’s support, established the following four working groups to help them achieve their targets:
- Energy Efficiency Workgroup: In 2022, Equinix worked with the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact to present proposed metrics and targets for data center energy efficiency to the European Commission (EC).
- Water Conservation Workgroup: Equinix worked with the Pact to present proposed metrics and water targets to the European Commission.
- Circular Economy Workgroup: This group gathered input and data from signatories and established appropriate reuse and repair targets for equipment.
- Monitoring and Reporting Workgroup: This group, chaired by Equinix’s Michael Winterson, will develop processes for signatories to certify adherence to Pact commitments.