Data center firm CyrusOne has brought its carbon-neutral target date forward by ten years.
The company this week announced plans to accelerate its pledge to become climate neutral by 2030, moving up its previous 2040 commitment by a decade.
To achieve this milestone, CyrusOne will “continue to improve the energy efficiency” of its new and existing data centers, procure renewable electricity “at an accelerated rate”, and investigate zero-carbon alternatives to traditional diesel backup generators.
The company, acquired by KKR this year, said its European facilities have been running on renewable power since 2021.
“Our customers’ commitments to reduce their carbon footprints has inspired us to quicken our efforts,” said Kyle Myers, Vice President of Environmental Health, Safety, and Sustainability at CyrusOne. “It is becoming more and more evident that our previous target of climate neutral by 2040 was ambitious for its time, but is no longer ambitious enough. We not only plan to reach carbon neutrality by the end of this decade, but to do so while decreasing our water consumption in vulnerable regions.”
CyrusOne made its original pledge to become carbon neutral by 2040 in September 2020. The move brings it in line with the goals of the European Climate Neutral Data Center Pact, of which CyrusOne is a member.
Companies including AirTrunk and DigitalBridge have pledged to be carbon neutral by 2030. Others, such as AWS and NTT have promised to reach that goal by 2040.
Digital Realty has committed to reducing its Scope 1 and 2 emissions (direct and indirect emissions) by 68 percent and Scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions in its value chain) by 24 percent by 2030. Equinix has promised to cut emissions by 50 percent by 2030, and use all renewables in its facilities by that date.
