Working Toward Sustainable Data Center Growth: Johnson Controls At Bisnow’s DICE East Event

Buildings are responsible for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions and a recent Bisnow report has suggested that building owners may not be doing enough to curb that number. While the commercial real estate industry as a whole is making a tougher commitment to its sustainability goals, data center owners, in particular, are aggressively assessing how they can improve.

Data centers account for approximately 0.5% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and as demand for these facilities continues to grow, there is a risk of those emissions growing along with it. Some companies, however, are taking action now to help data centers take steps toward sustainability. 

“Many of our current projects are focused on understanding the efficiency, sustainability and decarbonization needs of data center customers,” said Mukul Anand, global director of business development at Johnson Controls. “We’re also working to ensure that our new product introduction teams are developing products that are aligned with the goal of making data centers more sustainable. We have recently launched chillers that need a smaller electrical infrastructure to support them and still have the best sound characteristics in the industry.” 

Johnson Controls provides digital technologies and services including artificial intelligence and data-driven solutions to give building owners deeper insight into their building’s health, sustainability and performance. Anand is part of the global products team and is responsible for applied HVAC equipment, specifically within the data center vertical. 

He will be speaking at Bisnow’s upcoming DICE East two-day data center event, which will be held on May 24-25 at the Ritz-Carlton in McLean, Virginia, discussing near-term strategies to drive efficiency and decarbonization in data centers. Register here.

Bisnow spoke with Anand about the upcoming event and the importance of data center sustainability. 

Bisnow: What inspired you to speak at Bisnow's DICE East event?

Anand: Bisnow’s DICE events are specifically focused on the data center vertical, so when we’re there we are able to dive deeper into the topics that pertain to data centers and create specific solutions that allow the industry to grow as fast as it needs to. The participants are industry veterans, so attending these events is a great learning experience for us where we can better understand and contribute to industry trends and the latest technologies.

My role is to focus on sustainable products and services so when I attend these events, I bring back the voice of the customer and ensure that our new product introduction teams are aligned with the products and services customers need to attain their sustainability goals.

Bisnow: What topics will you speak about at the event, and what are you most looking forward to while you're there?

Anand: We will be speaking on near-term strategies to drive efficiency and decarbonization. So essentially, these two components are aimed at helping our customers meet their sustainability target. The thing I most look forward to is gaining a better understanding of how aggressively our customers are trying to make changes and learning what we can do as a technology service and equipment provider to help them get there as quickly as possible. As always, I will speak about water conservation and the Water Usage Effectiveness metric.

Bisnow: How is Johnson Controls working to deliver sustainability?

Anand: We’re a part of the climate pledge, where we and several other global organizations are collaborating to create a healthy and sustainable planet. We believe in science, we believe in technology and we set science-based targets and ensure that we work together to limit global temperature rise this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, consistent with the Paris Agreement.

We integrate sustainable design into our products and services and up to 75% of our research and development funds go toward these initiatives. We work with diverse and sustainable suppliers. Within our company, we foster a culture of sustainability that engages and attracts people who want to make a difference.

As an example, we recently launched chillers that can provide free cooling without the need for additional free cooling coils. This reduces the carbon footprint of the product, freight and building support structure. It’s a great win for all involved parties.

Bisnow: What are some strategies data center owners should be adopting to better drive sustainability, including energy-efficiency and decarbonization? 

Anand: We’ve learned that communication and collaboration are key when it comes to sustainability. So we believe that the data center vertical should continue to be good corporate citizens, respect the community around us and communicate our path forward toward our sustainability goals. We should use as many renewable resources as possible and reduce the dependence of data centers on fossil fuels.

Everybody knows that uptime is critical for data centers, but there should be a parallel focus on designs based on real-world and efficient operating conditions. To attain that, we should use the most energy-efficient products possible and reduce the use of water. At Johnson Controls, we also focus on using low global warming potential refrigerants in our HVAC systems. We recently launched the YVAM Chillers with R1234ze refrigerant.

The biggest message we want to get across is that the average facility built today will be used for more than 100 years, so we must construct buildings that can be retrofitted to include the most relevant, energy-efficient IT, power and cooling technologies as they arise, thereby reducing waste. We have ensured that our HVAC technologies for data centers can deliver upward of 80°F chilled fluid and are therefore future-proof as servers are being designed to operate warmer.

Bisnow: What are your predictions for the future of data centers? What will demand look like and what are some of the top challenges facility owners will face?

Anand: The biggest trend is global growth. While North America is the current hotbed for data center innovation and global best practices, we are now seeing our North American customers growing globally, and we think that trend will continue.

We need to ensure that this growth is responsible. We must ensure industry growth does not hurt the resources that are needed in other verticals in other parts of the economy and that data center architecture is flexible enough to accommodate future changes in the IT infrastructure. And finally, we need to focus on manufacturing data center tools that will reduce waste and the overall carbon footprint of the structures. Technologies like chilled water reset and occasional excursions beyond ASHRAE-recommended operating conditions will allow data center owners and operators to reduce their carbon footprint.

Anand will be at Bisnow's DICE East event, which will be held on May 24-25. Register here. 

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and Johnson Controls. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.