CASE STUDY PILLAR 2: PROPERTY PORTFOLIO 34 Environmental, Social and Governance Report 2022 ESR DATA CENTRE FUND SUPPORTING DIGITAL GROWTH Demand for digital infrastructure has skyrocketed since the COVID pandemic. This is driven by the rise in remote working and learning, acceleration of automation technologies and digital transformation in business and industrial processes. Due to high amount of energy and water consumed, there are increasing regulatory requirements, societal objections and demands from investors and customers for data centre developers and operators to implement more sustainable solutions. We are an official signatory of the iMasons Climate Accord, a global initiative aimed to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices in the Information and Communications Sustainable & Efficient Operations Technology (ICT) industry. With the successful closure of ESR Data Centre Fund 1 (ESR DC Fund 1) in July 2022, ESR raised over US$1 billion capital from investors including some of the world’s largest sovereign wealth and pension funds to develop 8 projects representing over 260 MW of capacity. Strategic guidance on the development of a Data Centre is crucial to utilising the capital commitment from investors. ESR formulated three pillars, namely Sustainable Construction, Operational Efficiency and Renewable Energy to provide guidelines on the development and operations of Green Data Centres. Our targets and progress to date are summarised in the table below: Pillars Focus Area Targets/Strategy Status Sustainable Construction Site selection Conduct physical climate risk assessments for all sites to ensure climate resiliency and design for mitigations S&P Global’s Climanomics tool will be used to analyse climate risks for all our new sites Embodied carbon – Retrofit existing buildings – Consider low-carbon construction materials and fuel – Quantify embodied carbon – Retrofitted an existing 76 year-old building into a new data centre in Kwai Chung, Hong Kong using low-carbon materials to minimise embodied carbon while ensuring the building’s compliance with the latest building regulations and best practices – Used battery energy storage system during construction instead of diesel generators – Collected consumption data during construction to quantify embodied carbon for 2023 Green building certification Achieve USGBC’s LEED Gold certification or local equivalent for all developments Ongoing developments are on track to achieve LEED Gold certification Operational Efficiency Energy efficiency – Make use of the locally conducive climate to incorporate low-carbon solutions – Set annualised PUE target of 1.35 or better – Our Bupyeong Data Centre enjoys free cooling energy with the use of an air-side economiser – Designed and selected efficient energy system equipment to achieve the PUE target Water efficiency Adopt water-efficient technologies and monitor WUE during operation – Use of an air-cooled chiller plant system for Keihana DC – Use of a closed-circuit cooling tower for Bupyeong DC Smart building management Incorporate building management systems and smart solutions Sufficient water and power meters installed to optimise environmental performance Renewable Energy On-site renewable energy Maximise on-site renewable energy More than 100 kWp of BIPV will be installed on the facade of Bupyeong DC Renewable energy procurement 75% renewable energy by 2030, 100% renewable energy by 2040 We are currently working with a renewable energy consultant to conduct a market scan and develop a roadmap to achieve the long-term targets
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