Approach
Sustainability Governance
Building on our strong foundation and previous sustainability accomplishments, we continuously improve our practices globally and empower our leaders to do what’s right.
Equinix manages sustainability through a dedicated Sustainability Program Office (SPO). The SPO provides thought leadership in assembling and coordinating cross-functional teams across the business working to embed sustainability globally. This includes defining strategy; implementing and advocating for initiatives, processes and systems; reporting progress; and engaging stakeholders. The SPO is responsible for engaging with external stakeholders to share our progress, respond to inquiries, and solicit input that helps to strengthen our Future First sustainability strategy. Additional information on the frequency and methods of engagement is provided in the Our Stakeholders section.
The Board’s Nominating and Governance Committee oversees the SPO and the Sustainability Executive Steering Committee—composed of our Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President Global Operations, Executive Vice President & General Manager Data Center Services, and Executive Vice President Global General Counsel and Corporate Strategy. The Executive Steering Committee meets every six months and is updated on progress, impacts and priorities. The Executive Steering Committee helps to review broader objectives, key results and initiatives to ensure their alignment with organizational goals and priorities.
The Executive Steering Committee also manages the Sustainability VP Steering Committee, which drives daily program decision-making and strategies across functions. This cross-functional committee is made up of the Vice President and Senior Vice President-level representatives from Procurement, Global Design and Construction (GDC), SPO, Regulation and Compliance, Product, Office of the Chief Executive Officer, Operations, Digital Services and Marketing.
Transparency &
Disclosure
We are committed to transparently communicating our strategy and
the impact of our operations.
Nonfinancial Reporting Frameworks
Equinix continues to evolve its reporting to meet the requirements of leading industry frameworks and our stakeholders’ expectations. Since 2015, we have reported in alignment with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. Starting in 2019, we began including sustainability information in our corporate Annual Report to provide a holistic perspective on how Equinix is creating value for all stakeholders. Equinix includes environmental disclosures through the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) index in our 10-K. Human capital disclosures are also included in our 10-K reporting.
Equinix is an active participant in industry dialogue around nonfinancial reporting. We are a founding member of the U.S. Chapter of the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) CFO Leadership Network along with other industry leaders including Caterpillar, Levi Strauss & Co, Mars, Salesforce and VMware. The U.S. Network is composed of over a dozen CFOs from large global organizations. A4S aims to inspire the rapid integration of social and environmental considerations, such as climate change, into business strategy and operations, to build resilient business models. As part of this initiative, Equinix supports the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). We will assess, manage and measure our climate-related risks and opportunities.
“At Equinix, we’ve always understood that we must not only deliver financial performance but also a positive contribution to community and the environment. We remain dedicated to growing our sustainability efforts globally and understand that the future of business growth is linked to the development of sustainable innovation, technologies and business models. We look forward to continuing to emphasize the business value of purpose and social good by supporting the launch of the U.S. chapter of A4S and ongoing collaborations.”
Keith Taylor
CFO, Equinix
Verification & Assurance
Equinix’s environmental impacts—specifically energy, renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3—are third-party verified each year to ISO 14064-3 limited assurance standards. Learn more by reading our data and auditor statements.
ESG Surveys & Customer Requests
We share our ESG progress by responding to numerous environmental and sustainability surveys and customer requests throughout the year.
We have disclosed our climate change strategy and data through the CDP Climate Change Survey every year since 2015, and reported on our overall ESG performance via other ratings, rankings and indices. Some examples are show below.
Customer Focus
Our customers are at the center of everything we do. We employ a unique, collaborative process to facilitate customers’ progress—and their customers’ progress—on ambitious sustainability targets.
The Equinix Green Power Report is a renewable energy attestation statement based on the principles of The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol. This report equips our customers with electricity consumption, renewable energy usage, and carbon footprint data needed to measure and report relevant metrics in pursuit of their own goals and targets. In 2023, customer requests for these reports increased over 71% from 2022.
Equinix is driving positive change through thought-leadership opportunities with groups like the International Data Corporation (IDC) to improve sustainability awareness across the data center industry. In 2023, we participated in a variety of industry panels and events to highlight sustainable digital transformation opportunities with Equinix. Groups we have partnered with include Dublin Tech Summit, DPP, IDC and 451 Nexus. We see a role in continuing to engage in thought leadership to promote and amplify opportunities to transform our industry.
The following customers have used our documentation in their sustainability reporting efforts.
“Akamai partners closely with Equinix to achieve our mission of powering and protecting life online for billions of people, billions of times a day. Achieving our mission in a sustainable way is one of our key corporate values, and Equinix continues to be an important partner in achieving that and as we continue to build out the Akamai Connected Cloud.”
Mike Mattera
Corporate Sustainability, Akamai
Report Profile
This report has been prepared in alignment with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. The data in this report represent Equinix’s coverage of material topics within Equinix’s operational control boundary in calendar year 2023. The reporting period is January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, unless otherwise noted with specific data. The report’s scope covers all Equinix global operations and offices, unless otherwise specified. Equinix consistently maintains metrics and utilizes a robust internal tracking template to facilitate comparability of data over time. Changes in boundaries are disclosed when necessary. Questions, comments and concerns can be submitted to: sustainability@equinix.com.
FOOTNOTE: GRI 1-4 Reporting principles: Accuracy, Balance, Clarity, Comparability, Completeness, Sustainability context, Timeliness. GRI 3-2 List of material topics.