The US Green Building Council has certified IBM's latest data center in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park as a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold facility. The council rates new-construction or retrofit projects for a wide variety of building types based on elements of sustainability in their design and the construction process itself.

IBM officially launched its 60,000-sq-ft RTP data center in February, saying it was the most advanced data center in the company's portfolio to date, in terms of energy efficiency of the building and in terms of the IT systems it housed. This is the first IBM data center to receive LEED Gold certification ÔÇô second highest after LEED Platinum on USGBC's rating scale. 

Bob Greenberg, IBM's senior state executive for North Carolina, said the company was proud to have its first LEED Gold data center in the state. "Through local sourcing, recycling and tremendous innovation we've been able to achieve a significant milestone for the company and further solidify IBM's commitment to Research Triangle Park," he said in a statement. 

The design employed IBM's modular design method called Enterprise Modular Data Center, which the company says allows for capacity scaling in about half the time it usually takes to expand a data center. The modular approach allows up to 40 percent in capital costs and up to 50 percent in operational cost to be deferred until there is demand for more space to be built out. 

The project's characteristics that earned it the LEED certification include reuse of most of the original building. According to IBM, 25 percent of newly purchased materials were made from recycled products. Non-potable water used in the facility comes from its rainwater collection system. The building uses free cooling and has a reflective roof, which also helps reduce indoor temperature. 

Cooling capacity is adjusted dynamically, based on data collected by a network of temperature and humidity sensors.