Germany data center firm Maincubes has tied its loan repayments to sustainability targets.

The company this week said it had added sustainability targets to its existing growth financing, linking the achievement of these targets to the financing conditions.

Maincubes secured more than €1 billion ($1.07bn) in debt financing in March 2023; it is this facility the company is adding ESG targets to.

The targets aim to increase the energy efficiency of its data centers, reduce CO2 output from cooling, and further expand the sustainability training for its employees.

"The successful addition of the sustainability targets to our financing facility confirms the confidence of our lenders in Maincubes' long-term and sustainable expansion strategy. The 'Green Loan' provides us the opportunity to integrate sustainability not only into the operation and construction of our data centers, but also into our financing," said Arne Weber, CFO of Maincubes.

Waldemar Maurer, Partner at DTCP, the main investor of Maincubes, added: "The sustainability-linked financing is a great success for Maincubes and we are pleased that lenders value Maincubes' sustainability ambitions. Achieving the targets will further strengthen Maincubes' positioning. This is also a strong signal to Maincubes' customers, who are increasingly focusing on the sustainability of their data center provider in addition to operational redundancy and high security.”

Majority-owned by Digital Transformation Capital Partners since September last year, Maincubes currently operates the FRA01 and FRA02 data centers in Frankfurt and another in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The company has also announced plans for a third and fourth data center in Frankfurt and its first in Berlin.

Earlier this year, the company signed a 10-year Power Purchase Agreement with energy provider Stadtwerke Gottingen AG for its third Frankfurt facility, FRA03.

Sustainability-linked financing is becoming an increasingly popular way for data center developers to raise funds for projects.