In June CyrusOne is celebrating World Environment Day, a day encouraging awareness and action for the protection of the environment.
According to the Royal Horticultural Society, loss of suitable habitats, reduction in the amount and diversity of flowers and available nesting sites, pesticide use, and climate change are all contributing to declines in bee and pollinator populations. So crucial is pollination - the process of animals moving pollen to fertilise flowers for seed, nut, and fruit production - that Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live”.
How CyrusOne is supporting biodiversity
Biodiversity is deeply important to us at CyrusOne - as we explain in our recently published 2023 Sustainability Report, it is a key pillar of our commitment to the environment alongside climate, water, and the circular economy. While our data center campuses are mostly occupied by buildings, we find creative opportunities to use the surrounding land to support a diversity of resilient biological networks, as well as our digital ones. Our strategy is three-pronged:
1. Choosing data center sites responsibly
When looking for suitable locations to build new data centers, we select areas designated for industrial purposes and avoid areas of high habitat quality. We also dedicate available green space around our data center buildings and consult local conservation experts and landscape it with native species that attract a variety of wildlife and enable it to thrive.
For example, CyrusOne is planning a new data center in London which will be its most ambitious sustainability effort to date. It will be set into the ground covered in a green roof and blend into the surrounding landscape. Its biodiverse and community focus could set a new gold standard for green data centres.
Extensive landscaping plans will include the planting of over 450 orchard fruit and individual specimen trees, 22,470 sqm of woodland, and 11,780 sqm of mixed meadow planting. Plans for this surrounding area resulted in a biodiversity net gain of around 130%, significantly higher than the current government target of at least 10%.
A long-term Landscape Ecological Management Plan will also be put in place for maintenance and continued public access to the open space.
Another example is our Dublin I Grange Castle data center in Ireland, where we support the DCs for Bees program by Host in Ireland and follow its toolkit for pollinator plantings on-site at data centers, as well as working with the Irish Native Woodland Trust to support native plantings off-site.
The landscape has been specifically designed to create habitats for a variety of flora and fauna. We created a wildflower meadow using native seeds complemented by areas we let to go wild providing an abundance of flowering pollinators.
We also architected a wetland planted with marigolds and irises interspersed with reeds and rushes to create habitats for both bees and other insects as well as larger fauna such as frogs and newts.
And to boost pollinator populations further, we planted an orchard using trees under the Host in Ireland Orchard Scheme such as oak and birch, as well as pollinating trees, the likes of which include wild and bird cherry plus builder row and rock rose shrubs.
We are also maintaining existing hedgerows on site as well as planting new ones including a long-lost historically significant hedgerow, and establishing bee hotels to make it as easy as possible for populations to nest.
2. Following development of biodiversity reporting frameworks
In addition to following the DCs for Bees Pollinator Plan in Europe, in North America, we certify our landscapes per the National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat program. Our Texas Allen site received our first National Wildlife Federation habitat certification, and our location at Carrollton, also in Texas, was designed and installed by a landscape contractor with native plant habitat expertise.
We also closely follow the development of reporting frameworks such as the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and Science-Based Targets for Nature (SBTN) to inform our local data center site biodiversity plans.
3. Looking for opportunities to benefit the environment holistically
We are always looking for ways to improve environmental responsibility, so when we are thinking about how to provide benefit to water or carbon, we also consider how investing in biodiversity can support our overall commitment to sustainability. For example, we work with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to use ‘stacked offsets’ which pair a certified carbon offset with additional funding to support US West Coast tree plantings which can support pollinator populations while capturing carbon in arboretums to mitigate against climate change.
To learn more about CyrusOne’s biodiversity strategy, read our 2023 Sustainability report here.
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