Sustainability Assessment of Data Centers Beyond LEED

In the era of information explosion, cloud technology is the backbone of data storage. The role of a continuous and reliable cloud system is crucial in managing the widespread emergence of “big data”. Electronic data devices are generating data at an unprecedented rate that needs to be stored and managed. Data Centers (DCs) provide a place that is primarily designed for data storage and processing purposes. The constant growth in the number of data centers created subsequent environmental impacts including carbon emissions, resource depletion, and energy and material wastes. Assessing data centers sustainability is now provided by a few third-party verification systems. The USGBC LEED as the most prominent green building assessment system in the US, added a category for data centers in the current version LEED version 4 (LEED v4). A comprehensive review of the LEED v4 scoring criteria reveals that it fails to properly address and assess the unique attributes of data centers. LEED focuses on improving sustainability measures mainly in “Energy and Atmosphere” but pays less attention to other categories. A major flaw in LEED v4 approach to data centers is that LEED assesses similar scoring criteria to data centers as other building types. This study concludes with discussing the potential areas of improvement in LEED v4 for assessing sustainability measures in data centers.