CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) may be mulling the future of its data center business, but in the meantime the service provider has set a goal to be more environmentally friendly by reducing its non-IT load energy consumption in its U.S. data centers 25 percent by 2023.
The energy consumption goal coincides with CenturyLink's move to join the U.S. Energy Department's Better Buildings Challenge, a leadership initiative aiming to create energy efficiency solutions and accelerate investments for companies, organizations and local government.
As a key element of President Obama's Climate Action Plan, the Better Buildings Challenge seeks to double American energy productivity by 2030 by encouraging corporate and public sector leaders across the country to save energy through commitments and investments.
"This initiative aligns with CenturyLink's ongoing efforts to continually improve energy efficiency across our entire data center portfolio," said David Meredith, senior vice president, global data centers, CenturyLink.
By working with the Energy Department, CenturyLink said it will share its energy efficiency strategies with other data center providers.
CenturyLink itself has been engaged in a number of initiatives designed to make its data center operations more energy efficient.
Two of these initiatives are taking place in central Washington state and Irvine, California.
In Washington, CenturyLink opened a data center whose energy is supplied in part by hydroelectric generators powered by the nearby Columbia River.
No less compelling is its move to deploy Bloom fuel cell technology in a multi-tenant data center in Irvine. The Bloom Energy Servers, which generate electricity through a clean electrochemical process using air and natural gas, deliver enhanced sustainability benefits, including high efficiency, small physical footprint and reduced water use.
Already, the Better Buildings Challenge is having an effect. Over the five years since the program was launched, program partners said they have saved $1.3 billion and 160 trillion BTUs of energy.
For more:
- see the release
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