Digital Realty Trust’s 1525 Comstock in Santa Clara, California Earns Highest LEED RatingSAN FRANCISCO, Jan 11, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR, news, filings), the world’s largest wholesale datacenter provider, has earned LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for its 1525 Comstock datacenter property in Silicon Valley. This is the second LEED Platinum certification that Digital Realty Trust has earned for its properties in Santa Clara. This brings the Company’s number of LEED-certified facilities in the United States to eight (8) with twelve (12) additional facilities currently going through the LEED certification process. Digital Realty Trust also earned the first BREEAM Excellent environment rating in the data center industry for one of its facilities in the United Kingdom.
“Digital Realty Trust continues to be at the forefront of industry efforts to make datacenters more energy efficient and sustainable. We have achieved more green certifications for our facilities than any other company in the datacenter industry, and we continue to apply our expertise in energy-efficient design and operations to the benefit of our customers,” said Jim Smith, CTO of Digital Realty Trust. “Most datacenter companies approach being green by focusing on issues such as PUE. Digital Realty Trust takes a more comprehensive approach by ensuring the sustainability of construction practices, the re-use of existing buildings and energy efficient design principles to complement our facilities’ low PUE ratings.”
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System(TM) is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
About the U.S. Green Building Council
The U.S. Green Building Council is a nonprofit membership organization whose vision is a sustainable built environment within a generation. Its membership includes corporations, builders, universities, government agencies, and other nonprofit organizations. Since USGBC’s founding in 1993, the Council has grown to more than 17,000 member companies and organizations, a comprehensive family of LEED(R) green building rating systems, an expansive educational offering, the industry’s popular Greenbuild International Conference and Expo (www.greenbuildexpo.org), and a network of 78 local chapters, affiliates, and organizing groups. For more information, visit www.usgbc.org.
About LEED
The LEED(R) (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System(TM) is a feature-oriented rating system that awards buildings points for satisfying specified green building criteria. The six major environmental categories of review include: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Innovation and Design. Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels of LEED green building certification are awarded based on the total number of points earned within each LEED category. LEED can be applied to all building types including new construction, commercial interiors, core & shell developments, existing buildings, homes, neighborhood developments, schools and retail facilities. Incentives for LEED are available at the state and local level and LEED has also been adopted nationwide by federal agencies, state and local governments, and interested private companies. For more information, visit www.usgbc.org/LEED.
About Digital Realty Trust, Inc.
Digital Realty Trust, Inc. owns, acquires, redevelops, develops and manages technology-related real estate. The Company is focused on providing Turn-Key Datacenter(R) and Powered Base Building(R) datacenter solutions for domestic and international tenants across a variety of industry verticals ranging from information technology and Internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty Trust’s 81 properties, excluding one property held as an investment in an unconsolidated joint venture, contain applications and operations critical to the day-to-day operations of technology industry tenants and corporate enterprise datacenter tenants. Comprising approximately 14.4 million rentable square feet as of January 4, 2010, including 1.9 million square feet of space held for redevelopment, Digital Realty Trust’s portfolio is located in 27 markets throughout North America and Europe. For additional information, please visit Digital Realty Trust’s website at http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include the impact of the current deterioration in the global economy, including the turmoil in the financial and credit markets; the downturn of local economic conditions in our geographic markets; decreases in information technology spending, including as a result of economic slowdowns or recession; adverse economic or real estate developments in our industry or the industry sectors that we sell to; decreases in real estate valuations and resulting impairment charges; our dependence upon significant tenants; bankruptcy or insolvency of one or more major tenants or a significant number of smaller tenants; defaults on or non-renewal of leases by tenants; our failure to obtain necessary debt and equity financing for refinancing current debt obligations, undertaking or completing redevelopment, completing acquisitions or other purposes; increased interest rates and operating costs; our failure to repay debt when due or our breach of covenants or other terms contained in our loan documents; financial market fluctuations; changes in foreign currency exchange rates; our ability to manage our growth effectively; difficulty acquiring or operating properties in foreign jurisdictions; our failure to successfully operate acquired or redeveloped properties; risks related to joint venture investments, including as a result of our lack of control of certain of these investments; delays or unexpected costs in development or redevelopment of properties; decreased rental rates or increased vacancy rates; increased competition or available supply of data center space; inability to successfully redevelop and lease new properties and space held for redevelopment; difficulties in identifying properties to acquire and completing acquisitions; our inability to acquire off-market properties; our inability to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to public companies; our failure to maintain our status as a REIT; possible adverse changes to tax laws; restrictions on our ability to engage in certain business activities; environmental uncertainties and risks related to natural disasters; changes in foreign laws and regulations, including those related to taxation and real estate ownership and operation; changes in real estate and zoning laws; and increases in real property tax rates. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the Company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 and the Company’s quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2009, June 30, 2009 and September 30, 2009. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Turn-Key Datacenter, Powered Base Building and POD Architecture are registered trademarks of Digital Realty Trust.
For Additional Information:
A. William Stein
Chief Financial Officer and
Chief Investment Officer
Digital Realty Trust, Inc.
+1 (415) 738-6500
Pamela Matthews
Director of Investor Relations
Digital Realty Trust, Inc.
+1 (415) 738-6500
SOURCE Digital Realty Trust, Inc.
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