Zayo buys 86M kilowatt-hours of renewable energy to power 5 data centers, furthers sustainability efforts

Zayo has purchased 86 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy certificates to power five of its zColo data centers, reflecting the service provider’s effort to support environmental sustainability.

The energy certificates will be used to power zColo data center facilities located in Illinois, Texas and New Jersey. By purchasing this renewable energy source, Zayo said it expects to see “significant annual savings” in energy costs.

RELATED: Zayo’s Caruso: 5G plans, industry consolidation causing a near-term pause in fiber spending decisions

After purchasing this renewable energy source, Zayo has become an EPA Green Power Partner. Green power is zero-emissions electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass and low-impact hydro.

The EPA said that green power helps accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide and helps users reduce their carbon footprints.

"Zayo is demonstrating leadership by furthering the case for accessible, affordable green power use and provides an excellent example for other businesses in the tech and telecom sector,” said James Critchfield, program manager of EPA’s Green Power Partnership, in a release.

The EPA’s Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with electricity use. Currently, more than 1,400 partner organizations are voluntarily using billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually.

But these five data centers are just one part of a broader effort by Zayo to improve energy efficiency across the zColo footprint. The service provider has additional projects underway in 46 other data centers to improve efficiency and reduce energy consumption, including upgraded power and HVAC components, airflow management upgrades, lighting retrofits and other improvements.

Zayo’s zColo business continues to be a source of growth for the company. During its fiscal year third quarter of 2017, zColo’s revenues were $53.6 million. The service provider added 110,000 square feet over the past 12 months and it has an additional 52,000 square feet in development.