Digital Realty Green Bond: Funding Sustainable Growth

Digital Realty has completed a full US$6bn green bond allocation to support its sustainable growth.

The company, which is known for being a large global provider of cloud and carrier neutral data centres, colocation and interconnection solutions, now marks its eighth bond allocation since its first issuance in 2015.

This comes during a time where the data centre industry is having to balance innovation with sustainability in order to reduce their impact on the environment. Digital Realty’s green bond offerings have played a crucial role in supporting sustainable activities across 130 projects worldwide, ranging from sustainably certified new data centre construction to renewable energy and efficiency projects.

Contributing to a greener future for data centres

In line with its sustainability initiatives, Digital Realty has also developed its own green bond framework based on the ICMA Green Bond Principles and the GRESB Green Bond Guidelines for the Real Estate Sector. This is to help ensure the credibility and transparency of its sustainable activities.

The impact of this portfolio supports the annual generation of 2.8 million megawatt-hours of clean energy. As a result, it will eliminate the need for 2.2 billion gallons of water and save 2.9 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

"Green bonds enable Digital Realty to align its sources of capital funding the business’ growth with its global sustainability goals,” says Aaron Binkley, VP of Sustainability at Digital Realty. “Our green bonds complement our sustainability-linked global credit facility, enhancing our ability to support our customers as they grow and scale, which helps to ensure a greener future for all.”

Digital Realty continues to grow its global data centre presence, having recently announced it was expanding its AI data centre platform across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. 

The company’s sustainability efforts also extend beyond these green bonds, with the company becoming the first global data centre organisation to join the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2020.

As part of this commitment, Digital Realty aims to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 68% and Scope 3 emissions by 24% by 2030.

Expanding ESG capabilities

The company is also doubling down on its ESG initiatives, spearheading its commitment to the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact. This included appointing Jo-Ann Garbutt as its new Director of Sustainability & Government Engagement.

With more than 120 data centres around the world now matched with 100% renewable electricity, Digital Realty aims to continue leading the industry in sustainable data centre solutions. Following a third-party audit in 2023, the company received a Certificate of Conformity, certifying that it adheres to self-regulatory initiatives set out by the Pact in Europe.

Solidifying its commitment to decarbonisation, Digital Realty’s green bonds aim to reaffirm its position as a leader in the industry and contribute to a greener future.

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