eBay Data Center Earns LEED Gold Certification

When it comes to data centers, we seem to hear about Google and perhaps Facebook most often.  Both companies have been known to announce new facilities and expansions on a regular basis. ...
eBay Data Center Earns LEED Gold Certification
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  • When it comes to data centers, we seem to hear about Google and perhaps Facebook most often.  Both companies have been known to announce new facilities and expansions on a regular basis.  But apparently eBay has quite a lot of expertise in this field, too, as the U.S. Green Building Council recently awarded its Topaz data center the LEED Gold certification.

    The LEED certification program is a widely recognized system of encouraging sustainable building practices, and Gold is the second-highest certification level, falling only below Platinum.  It’s not at all easy to get.

    A post on eBay’s Green Team Talks blog explained, "Topaz becomes one of only a small handful of data centers on U.S. soil to achieve LEED Gold – a pretty major accomplishment considering the availability and security requirements needed to run eBay AND PayPal’s servers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year."

    Then the post described some of Topaz’s green features, which include "[t]he collection of rainwater to offset city water use," "[t]he ability to use low outside air temperatures to reduce electrical costs for cooling our servers," "[t]he use of low emitting materials throughout construction," "[t]he use of over 20% recycled and regional building materials in the facility construction," and "[t]he use of a chemical free water treatment system."

    The Topaz data center is located outside Salt Lake City, Utah, by the way, and opened earlier this year.

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