News, September 2012

Bell data centre recognized for green design and innovation

The Uptime Institute recently awarded Bell and its partner Urbacon Architecture the 2012 Green Enterprise IT Award for Facility Design and Innovation. The Uptime Institute is an independent international research, education and consulting organization focused on the data centre industry.

Uptime Institute Green Enterprise IT awards are presented to organizations that significantly improve energy productivity and resource use in the IT sector. Bell won this award for the sustainable green building and development practices used in constructing its new Ottawa region data centre, scheduled to open in January 2013.

The Ottawa region data centre's cutting-edge design combines green architectural approaches with energy-efficient operational features, resulting in an industry-leading power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.26. The data centre's energy efficiency will cut typical carbon dioxide emissions by 12,000 tons, and total annual power savings are estimated at 17 million kilowatt hours – enough to power more than 1,400 homes.

The Ottawa region data centre also features the following green technologies:

• A rainwater collection system that will save 18 million gallons of water a year
• An innovative passive free air cooling system that delivers significant energy savings over traditional designs
• A highly efficient power distribution system that is not reliant on transformers, requiring 26 fewer tons of copper wiring to build

Built to meet LEED Gold status for design and construction, the new Bell data centre is also Tier III certified by the Uptime Institute for high availability and resiliency.

For more information about Bell data centres, download our data centre buyer's guide or request to have a Bell representative contact you.