Data Centers: their role caring for the environment in the region
Cirion replaced 38% of its energy consumption with renewable energy, a key milestone for the region.
Buenos Aires, June 24, 2024 – Data centers are key to driving and facilitating new technologies development and evolution. Between 1 and 1.5% percent of global electricity demand comes from data centers, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency. And projections show that energy consumption from cryptocurrencies could increase 40% by 2026, while that of AI could grow by 10-fold.
With the increasing environmental awareness and need to reduce carbon emissions, companies are looking for ways to make their operations more sustainable, including their data centers management. In this line, it is estimated that demand for sustainable data centers will grow more than 14% until 2032, according to Persistence Market Research consulting.
The connection between data centers and clean energy production is not a project but a reality: Cirion recently replaced 38% of its energy consumption with renewable energy, a key milestone for the region.
“Highlighting the progress and sustainability of technology in the region is a priority for Cirion. Today, the data center market is experiencing remarkable growth and increasing demand. Given this situation, the company is in the process of building new data centers in Peru (LIM2) and Chile (SAN2), with a 20 MW capacity each. These centers were designed following international standards, with emphasis on energy efficiency,” said Gabriel del Campo, VP of Data Centers at Cirion Technologies.
The company, with more than 90,500 km of fiber networks, is one of the few Pan-Latin American networks with presence in more than 20 countries, global reach and one of the few submarine networks providers. In addition, it operates one of the most interconnected carrier-neutral data center platforms in Latin America, with 18 own data centers, supported by different levels of physical and digital security and with the redundancy levels that companies require.
Cirion’s sustainability program focuses on seven key areas:
- Environmental compliance and management: our EHS team evaluates and reviews our operations and waste management vendors. Regular environmental legislative reviews of our activities are performed across our operating markets to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
- Energy and emissions: to reduce our carbon footprint we are identifying and implementing efficiency initiatives and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction.
- Waste: We divert millions of kilos of electronic and communications equipment from landfills every year. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) operating companies gather this kind of waste for their treatment, either for security landfill of those with hazardous components or for recycling, both in the country and overseas.
- Vendors’ environmental assessment: Our suppliers must be committed to implementing environmentally preferable and energy-efficient services and must collaborate with their own suppliers to assess and address environmental and sustainability issues within their supply chains.
- Climate preparedness: we adopt a comprehensive business continuity program focused on prevention, collaboration, communication, response, and recovery to resolve disruptive events that may impact our operations quickly.
- Occupational health and safety: our company conducts regular risk assessments and monitors health and safety regulation amendments to ensure our operations remain compliant.
Cirion’s first Sustainability Report as a standalone company includes more information about our environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives, as well as their sustainable practices and progress thereof.
About Cirion
Cirion is a leading digital infrastructure and technology provider, offering a comprehensive suite of fiber network, connectivity, colocation, cloud infrastructure, and communication and collaboration solutions with the purpose of furthering Latin America´s progress through technology. Cirion serves more than 5,500 Latin American and multinational clients, including enterprises, government agencies, cloud service providers, operators, ISPs, and other leading companies. Cirion owns and operates a portfolio of its own networks and data centers, with extensive coverage throughout the Latin American region. Learn more about Cirion at www.ciriontechnologies.com