Data Centre Leaders Set Sustainability Benchmarks in 2025
The Global Sustainability Awards 2025 celebrate the organisations and leaders embedding ESG principles into the heart of business strategy. Now recognised as a leading international platform, the awards showcase measurable achievements across industries, from manufacturing and energy to finance and digital infrastructure.
For the data centre sector, sustainability is both a responsibility and a competitive differentiator.
With data consumption continuing to rise, facilities are under growing pressure to reduce emissions, cut water usage and manage power demand without compromising resilience. Operators and designers must integrate renewable energy, develop efficient cooling systems and embrace circular practices to ensure that digital growth does not come at the expense of environmental impact.
The awards also highlight how collaboration across engineering, design and finance can create scalable solutions for greener digital infrastructure. By moving beyond pledges to demonstrable outcomes, the sector is proving it can align growth with climate targets.
Ramboll – Future Leader Award
Sripragas Nadaraja, Sustainable Design Director at Ramboll, was awarded the Future Leader Award for his pioneering contributions to the built environment across Singapore and Southeast Asia.
With a career dedicated to sustainable design, he has delivered landmark net zero energy and super low-energy projects that push the boundaries of efficiency. His innovations include a low-energy cooling system, a one-click embodied-carbon tool and the application of regenerative principles at both building and district scale.
Sripragas also engages stakeholders through workshops and education while influencing policy. By translating complex sustainability challenges into practical, scalable solutions, he drives meaningful climate action.
ECL – Net Zero Award, Project of the Year Award and Start-Up Award
ECL, a California-based start-up, secured three awards for redefining sustainable digital infrastructure.
Its off-grid, 3D-printed data centre modules are powered entirely by green hydrogen fuel cells, producing electricity and closed-loop cooling water without emissions or external water use.
Designed for both cloud providers and enterprise clients, these modular solutions can be deployed anywhere, including disconnected areas.
Built for high-density compute, ECL’s model enables businesses to decarbonise operations at scale while influencing suppliers to adopt greener practices. By setting a blueprint for zero-emissions digital infrastructure, ECL proves how start-ups can reshape the industry with scalable innovation.
Scala Data Centers – Sustainable Finance Award
Scala Data Centers, founded in 2020, won the Sustainable Finance Award for advancing renewable-powered hyperscale infrastructure across Latin America.
Backed by DigitalBridge, Coatue and IMCO, the company operates colocation and cloud-ready data centres with 100% certified renewable power, market-leading energy efficiency and carbon-neutral operations.
Its facilities are also built to ANSI/TIA-942-B rated-3 standards, ensuring reliability alongside sustainability. Scala has pioneered the use of green debenture issuances to finance its expansion, reinforcing investor confidence in sustainable digital growth.
Innovations such as HVO-powered backup systems and self-generation projects make Scala a benchmark for the region, aligning hyperscale growth with climate commitments.
