Solar and wind farm

“We believe that sustainability isn’t a passing trend, but a competitive advantage to modern data center operations, and a key pillar of our customers’ success.”

– Andrew Schaap, CEO, Aligned

Sustainability

At Aligned, we take resources very seriously.
Yours, ours, and the planet’s.

Aligned has been committed to solving the world’s toughest sustainability challenges associated with data center infrastructure, energy consumption, and water usage since our inception. Our adaptive data center platform helps companies deliver greater business value with less costly energy and infrastructure resources. 

At Aligned, operating a sustainable data center far exceeds purchasing renewable energy certificates. Sustainability begins with how we design, construct, and operate our adaptive data centers. It’s the environmental integrity of the partners we select, and our advanced, standardized supply chain methodology that accelerates and streamlines delivery. 

Sustainability at Aligned is also founded on the way we do business, including the first-ever green data center securitization, and first-ever sustainability-linked financing. Aligned matches 100% of our load with renewable sources and we are committed to progressing our goal of zero-carbon hosting by 2040.

Sustainability Spec Sheet

Green Machines

Aligned’s adaptive and intelligent data center platform helps companies utilize data center assets to their fullest extent possible, ensuring that no idle systems consume electricity. Our adaptive data center supports high, mixed, and variable density without stranding capacity. To accomplish this, we architect traditionally static systems to be dynamic, able to support different densities, as well as variable power draws.

An essential element of our adaptive data center platform that demonstrates our commitment to sustainability is our patented, award-winning cooling technology: the Delta³™ air and DeltaFlow~ TM  liquid cooling systems:

  • Delta³ arrays capture and remove heat, rather than pushing cold air into the data hall. This hot aisle containment strategy absorbs heat at its source, supporting standard and high power densities, and allowing data center environments to scale vertically and horizontally without stranding capacity. Aligned can accommodate densities up to 50 kW per rack with its air cooled solution alone.
  • With its DeltaFlow~ TM cooling technology, Aligned has also made it simple to transition from air-cooled to liquid-cooled systems, or deploy hybrid cooling systems combining both air and liquid in the same data hall, eliminating the need to construct new AI-dedicated build-to-suit data centers or completely retrofit and retool existing facilities.

Aligned is capable of supporting densities ranging from three to 300 kW per rack and beyond, while still maintaining a commitment to sustainability, lower PUE, and waterless designs thanks to its standard, closed-loop system.

Closed Loop System

Designed with efficiency in mind, Aligned’s standard closed loop system eliminates the use of outside water for a waterless data center solution.

Brownfield Site Development and Reclamation

Revitalizing brownfield sites for new data center development creates transformative change throughout local communities. In accordance with our ESG strategy and commitment to sustainability, Aligned redevelops brownfield sites that have lain dormant for many years, if not decades.

Aligned Data Centers continues to have great success with industrial site reclamation in both major and emerging data center markets. These brownfield development and reclamation projects include a former aerospace manufacturing facility in Phoenix, a shuttered semiconductor fabrication plant in the Salt Lake City Metro Area, the erstwhile site of a newspaper publisher’s printing operations, and a onetime automotive equipment manufacturing facility, originally built during the Second World War, in Northeast Ohio.

Brownfield data center development projects very often have preexisting access to high-capacity, reliable power, robust connectivity, and ample water supplies. What’s more, transforming these properties into assets in local communities provides a stable source of tax revenue and high-paying jobs, spurs ancillary business and service opportunities for the historically disadvantaged neighborhoods and municipalities where they reside, remediates environmental hazards where necessary, and preserves precious greenfield space for other uses.

Sustainable Design and Construction

The path to broader and more actionable sustainability at Aligned begins with how we design and construct our energy-efficient data centers and hyperscale campuses. It continues with taking accurate measurements of all carbon sources and mitigating water usage to ultimately reduce, reuse, and recycle wherever possible.

From site selection and planning to energy and water-efficient design, sustainable material selection, and waste reduction and management, Aligned’s sustainable construction program encompasses a holistic approach to building practices that minimizes environmental impact, conserves resources, and promotes healthy, livable, and resource-efficient spaces for future generations.

Additionally, Aligned’s supply chain program comprises a rolling pool of dedicated inventory, combined with factory-based construction of mechanical and electrical plant modular containers, which are then deployed and delivered on site. The ability to deploy our mechanical and electrical systems in small increments, and only when additional capacity is needed, contributes to sustainability by not stranding resources that aren’t being utilized. This provides for responsible use of limited resources and ultimately reduces our customers’ carbon footprint.

But don’t take our word for it. Look to Chicagoland, where Aligned’s ORD-01 hyperscale facility is the first newly constructed data center in Illinois to earn Green Globes certification from the Green Building Initiative and one of only six certified data centers in the world to receive a ranking of Three Green Globes. Aligned plans to certify each of its future data center builds.

Clean Energy

Aligned matches 100% of its IT and facility load with renewable sources. We work closely with our customers to evaluate their overall sustainability programs and provide a consultative and strategic approach to helping them navigate the path to sustainability. Aligned also collaborates with local utilities to provide customers with sustainability solutions to accelerate progress towards a cleaner future.

Quantifying Carbon Impact

Aligned was also one of the first data center providers to offer transparent and accurate data of our carbon footprint via a 24/7 carbon tracking platform that measures energy, emissions, and utility information. This allows Aligned and its customers to improve their sustainability strategies and make greater progress towards greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.

Aligned also integrates OriginMark™, an enhanced material traceability system, across our data center portfolio to accelerate supply chain decarbonization and circular asset management. Further advancing our ESG strategy, the technology provides Aligned and our customers a more transparent and granular view of their embodied carbon footprint by tracing the complete lifecycle of data center equipment and devices as well as identifying material recovery and recycling options.

Sustainability Partners and Recognition

Aligned has partnered with a number of sustainability-focused organizations and received a host of awards in recognition of our adaptive and efficient data center platform, innovative technology, and environmental stewardship.

EPA Green Power Partner

Aligned Data Centers has proudly joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership.

Business Intelligence Group Sustainability Award

2022 Sustainability Leadership Award

iMasons Climate Accord

Aligned has joined the iMasons Climate Accord (ICA). ICA is a historic coalition designed to govern a methodology to measure and reduce carbon in the infrastructure through products, power, and materials. 

Environmental Finance Bond Awards

2022 Asset-backed/asset-based Green Bond of the Year

Clean Energy Buyers Association Member

The CEBA community leverages peer-to-peer expertise and knowledge share, policy and regulatory advocacy, and foundational educational resources to accelerate renewable energy procurement.

Environmental Finance Bond Awards

2021 Sustainability-linked Loan of the Year

CPE Distinguished Achievement Awards

2020 Best Green Initiative

Business Intelligence Group Sustainability Award

2020 Sustainability Leadership Award

NVTC Virginia Data Center Awards

2020 Best Data Center Construction Project – Aligned Ashburn

Green Lease Leader

2020 National Recognition – Green Leasing

Arizona Data Center Awards

Data Center Energy Efficiency Project of the Year

Green Web Foundation

The Aligned website is hosted green and has been checked by the Green Web Foundation.

Expand on Demand™ with Delta³™ Cooling Technology

Allowing customers to Expand on Demand™ sustainably, an essential element of Aligned’s adaptive data centers is our patented, award-winning cooling system, which features the company’s Delta³™ technology. The cooling system provides a hyper-scalable and ultra-efficient environment that dynamically adapts to customers’ IT loads and supports high, mixed and variable rack densities of 1-50kW in the same row. 

Aligned’s cooling system delivers efficiency at any load, in any climate, and regardless of location. The system also requires less energy and consumes less water with the ability to run waterless, as customers require. Our ability to combine our Delta³™ cooling technology with a state-of-the-art waterless heat rejection system provides an excellent opportunity for customers to integrate water conservation into their sustainability strategies.

Discover Delta³™
100%

IT LOAD MATCHED WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

2040

ZERO-CARBON HOSTING COMMITMENT

0%

WATER USAGE DESIGN STANDARD

Meet the Green Team

Aligned’s Sustainability Committee, or Green Team, combines leaders from all our corporate divisions. As environmental stewards, Aligned is committed to powering our data center portfolio with renewable, clean energy and working hand-in-hand with customers to achieve our shared carbon-reduction goals.

Latest News on Sustainability

Illustrative - Greening IT
NewsPress Release
4/7/2023

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Recognizes Aligned Data Centers for Leading Green Power Use

Aligned announced it has joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership.
Aligned Data Centers - Green Globes Building Certification
NewsPress Release
8/10/2022

Aligned’s ORD-01 Becomes First Illinois Data Center to Earn Green Globes® for New Construction Certification

Aligned Data Centers announces that the Green Building Initiative (GBI) has awarded the ranking of Three Green Globes® for its hyperscale data center in Chicagoland in recognition of outstanding achievements in sustainable design and construction.
Aligned Data Centers Facilities
NewsPress Release
5/18/2022

Aligned Increases Its Sustainability-Linked Loan to $1.75 Billion in Response to Demand for Its Scale and Build-to-Scale Data Center Solutions

Aligned has increased its sustainability-linked loan from $375 million to $1.75 billion to accelerate its next phase of strategic growth and expansion. The facility consists of a $500 million 12-month delayed-draw term loan, a $750 million 24-month delayed-draw term loan, and a $500 million revolving credit facility.