Citi Achieves First Ever LEED Platinum Accreditation for a Data Centre

Green Accolade Awarded During 2009 Earth Week

Citi announced today that its newly completed Citi Data Center in Frankfurt is the first of its kind in the world to have earned the coveted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council (USGBC). This is the highest achievable award for new construction (V2.2 category).

The LEED Rating System is designed to encourage and facilitate the development of more sustainable buildings and is a leading edge system for certifying the world’s greenest buildings. Not only is this award a world first, it certifies the data centre’s unique achievement in regard to sustainability and energy efficiency.

“Citi is committed to ensuring that sustainability lies at the heart of all our major projects and a major new data centre was no different,” said John Killey, Head of Citi Realty Services EMEA. “For this project a balanced approach was adopted that recognised Citi’s commitment to a sustainable approach for the building without compromise to its operation and reliability.”

“Close co-operation between our Real Estate and Technology groups has been important to achieving major advances in the way in which we manage technology energy demand in Citi,” said Stephen Ellis Head of Technology Infrastructure EMEA. “The energy efficient design of the data centre, coupled with extensive use of new, energy efficient virtualised technology, housed in innovative modular cabinets has optimized energy use and reduced the data cabling needs”.

“Building operations are nearly 40% of the solution to the global climate change challenge,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “While climate change is a global problem, innovative firms like Citi are addressing it through local solutions.”

This environmentally conscious building has already been honoured for its ground breaking eco-friendly design with the prestigious European industry’s “Data Centre Excellence Green Energy Efficiency Award 2007” and the title of overall Winner at the Financial Services Technology (FTS) Magazine Award 2008.

Sustainability during the design, construction and operation phases was a primary consideration in the delivery of the 230,000 sq ft building. Its innovative design was executed with no increased cost over more conventional data centres and without adversely affecting reliability and resilience of the systems it houses.

Special attention was focused on the significant impacts of Energy, Water and Waste and notable features include:
Uses 30% of the power required for services that a conventional data centre would use
Optimised cooling design resulting in enhanced free cooling rate of 63%
Reverse Osmosis water treatment for cooling saves 50M litres per annum
Overall CO2 emissions reduction of 11,750 t/a
Water efficient fixtures has reduced potable water use by 41% as well as utilizing harvested rainwater for 100% of the irrigation needs
100% of the Construction waste was diverted from the landfill and operational waste is segregated for recycling
Material selection was a high priority item for Citi allowing both the LEED requirements and embodied energy calculations to influence the selection
The recycled content of the materials specified on the project reached 27% with local sourcing of materials exceeding 40%.
As an example of local consideration a vegetated roof area has been installed for 72% of the roof area as well as a full green wall irrigated from harvested rainwater
Makes extensive use of virtualized technology, deployed in a modular design which both optimised energy usage and reduced the total amount of cabling required by 250km.

Other major Citi projects that have received LEED certification include data centres in Singapore and Georgetown, Texas, two Citi office parks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and a 15-story skyscraper in the New York City Borough of Queens.

Notes to Editors

The Information and Communications Technology industry produces 2% of global CO2 emissions, a figure equivalent to emissions from the aviation industry. In addition energy usage in data centres continues to grow as a result of developments in new, more powerful technology solutions.

Therefore efficient data centre design plays an important role in our drive to cut carbon emissions. This exemplary building has the potential to change the way that data centres approach energy efficient and sustainable design.

Other special features of the building:

Large reduction in installed plant & elimination of lead acid batteries by use of unique topology of Diesel Rotary Uninterrupted Power units (DRUPs) which reduce UPS running costs

Green roofs minimise and reduce thermal gain into the data centre in summer months + green wall featuring indigenous plants and bio diversity fully irrigated by water

Enhanced CRAC unit design reducing power consumption 9.3 kW to 3.3 kW per unit

Advanced cooling tower design reducing power consumption from 74kW to 22 kW

High quality work space environment featuring good daylight, natural ventilation and environmentally benign materials selected for the interiors

Enhanced commissioning beyond best practice standards

The office area provision features natural day lighting and ventilation via glazed facades with external louvres of White Oak as a renewable resource

Landscaping includes generous green spaces throughout the site, the built mass being set back from the site boundaries buffered to all elevations with ‘garden zones’.

Throughout the building green roofs, a living wall, soft landscaping to many external areas and extensive tree planting are used.

Photographs of the building are available upon request.
Project Team

Project Management:
Citi Realty Services assisted by Drees & Sommer GmbH

Technology Services:
Citi Technology Infrastructure

Architecture/ Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Services:
Arup Associates

Main Contractor:
BAM Deutschland AG/Imtech Deutschland GmbH & Co.KG

About Citi

Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 140 countries. Through its two operating units, Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.

Contacts

Citi
Media:
London:
Adam Castellani, +44 207 986 5608
or
Frankfurt:
Anette Baum, +49 69 1366 5104
or
New York:
Luis Rosero, +1 212 559 2455