Digital Realty: Sustainability (portfolio PUE and renewable coverage)
Original title Digital Realty — Sustainability (portfolio PUE and renewable coverage)
Digital Realty
Digital Realty's sustainability page gives headline portfolio metrics from its 2025 Impact Report: a portfolio PUE of 1.38 and 93% global renewable electricity coverage. It offers a reference value for multi-tenant colocation.
On this page
Overview
The headline metrics are: portfolio PUE of 1.38; 93% global renewable electricity coverage; 205 managed properties matched with 100% emission-free energy; 1.7 GW of new renewable capacity contracted; and $8.5B of cumulative green bonds issued. These are averages from the 2025 Impact Report across a broad colocation portfolio rather than figures for one facility. A PUE of 1.38 means about 0.38 kWh of infrastructure energy for every 1 kWh of IT energy.
On operations the page says energy and water are tracked monthly and each site has its own PUE and WUE targets. The 1.38 is therefore not one target but the combined result of sites of different age, climate and tenant load. Certified properties are mentioned too, but the summary does not say which certifications are meant. Green-bond issuance reflects the financing side, while the PUE and WUE targets reflect operations.
As a corporate summary the page does not give details such as the PUE measurement boundary, whether it is annual or instantaneous, or which sites are covered. It still provides a comparison line of 1.38-1.4 for multi-tenant colocation, sitting between the roughly 1.1 reported by hyperscale operators and the industry average of about 1.54, and so gives a realistic colocation ceiling when setting design targets.
Key points
- Portfolio PUE 1.38.
- 93% global renewable electricity coverage; 205 managed properties matched with 100% emission-free energy.
- 1.7 GW of new renewable capacity contracted.
- $8.5B cumulative green bonds issued.
- Monthly energy and water tracking; site-specific PUE and WUE targets.
Using it in design
- Use portfolio PUE of about 1.38-1.4 as the benchmark for multi-tenant colocation (against hyperscale about 1.1 and industry about 1.54).
- Show it as the default 'colo benchmark' line in efficiency comparisons.
- Label the line as a portfolio average, not a single-facility target.
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Who should read it
Designers and investors comparing colocation efficiency targets against a market reference.
Related standards
- ISO/IEC 30134-2
- ISO/IEC 30134-9
Publication details
- Authors
- Digital Realty
- Publisher
- Digital Realty
- Year
- 2025
- Document language
- English
- Source type
- Expert / community
- Access
- Free to read
- Licence
- Copyright retained; citation only — the publisher’s terms apply to the original document
Citation
Digital Realty (2025). Digital Realty — Sustainability (portfolio PUE and renewable coverage). Digital Realty. https://www.digitalrealty.com/about/sustainability
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Related sources
All sources on this topic
European Commission, DG Energy 2025
Assessment of the energy performance and sustainability of data centres in EU - First technical report (July 2025)
Compare your design PUE target with the real EU spread: 1.21 on average above 10 MW, 1.55 at 1-2 MW; set a realistic bound for your facility size.
- Rule of thumb cited: PUE below 1.2 excellent, 1.2-1.5 good, above 1.5 room for improvement.
European Commission (Official Journal of the European Union) 2024
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 of 14 March 2024 on the first phase of the establishment of a common Union rating scheme for data centres
Build the metering architecture to the regulation: meters on every supply input for total energy (grid and back-up generator separately) and at every UPS output for IT energy, with a system that retains measurement point and device records for at least 10 years.
- Data centre electricity demand is projected to reach 3.2% of total EU demand by 2030, a 28% increase over 2018.
Open Compute Project Foundation 2024
Data Center Facility Sustainability Metrics (OCP Data Center Facility white paper, October 2, 2024)
Build the metering plan so that PUE can be reported at the highest category possible, with IT load measured at PDU or equipment input rather than the UPS output where feasible.
- External reporting is annual (required) and quarterly on a trailing 12 months (recommended); internal tracking should be continuous or monthly.
arXiv preprint 2026
The fallacy of sustainable Generative AI: limitations in EU environmental regulation of data centres and paths forward
For EU projects, add an EED compliance module that flags facilities of 500 kW and above as reportable.
- The second EU technical report suggests targets of PUE 1.3 for new data centres and WUE below 0.4 m3/MWh.
Meta 2025
Meta 2025 Environmental Data Index (data center PUE and WUE)
Take hyperscale best-in-class WUE of about 0.2 L/kWh (withdrawal basis) and PUE of about 1.08 as benchmarks.
- Total water withdrawal 3,726 ML (2020) -> 5,637 ML (2024).
Schneider Electric 2025
10 Data Center Sustainability Improvements Quantified by Environmental Impact
In the sustainability panel compute operational CO2e = IT MWh x PUE x grid EF, with a grid-EF catalog by country/region (default US 454 kg CO2e/MWh incl. upstream) and a renewable-PPA toggle.
- Total GHG falls from 84,100 to 11,300 t CO2e (-87%).