Iron Mountain Advances Sustainable Data Centers with BREEAM Certifications

In 2021, Iron Mountain Data Centers announced their adoption of BREEAM globally for all new multi-tenant design and construction. Shortly thereafter in 2022, Iron Mountain became the first owner in North America to achieve BREEAM certification at the design stage for a data center site, with its Phoenix-based AZP-2 facility earning an Excellent rating for its strong sustainable design features.  

AZP-2, a 547,000-square-foot facility located on a 39-acre campus just 10 minutes east of downtown Phoenix, can accommodate a maximum IT load of 48 megawatts (MW) and is matched by 100% renewable energy. 

Following AZP-2's successful design certification, Iron Mountain has continued to prioritize sustainable benchmarking and certification across its growing portfolio of data center assets. Most recently, the company turned to BREEAM to achieve the next phase of certification for AZP-2, now in the post-construction phase, as well as design certification for an additional facility, VA3B1.   

Located in Manassas, Virginia, on Iron Mountain’s Virginia campus, VA3B1 is a unique two-story, split-level structure combining a two-story data center and a three-story office tower. Representing the largest building on the campus at 390,000 square feet, the facility includes two 48 MW data center halls, each measuring 30,000 square feet, with plans for four more data halls upon completion.  

As the first data center in North America to achieve both design and post-construction certification through BREEAM, the certification of AZP-2 has represented a significant undertaking for Iron Mountain. Charged with setting a precedent for sustainable performance benchmarking and certification, Iron Mountain Data Centers collaborated closely with the BREEAM team to navigate the complexities of the nuanced and energy-intensive data center sector, identifying the strongest opportunities to enhance sustainability efforts, mitigate climate risks, and improve asset’s overall impact. 

Despite boasting aspirational and impactful sustainability goals, the Iron Mountain team initially faced challenges in identifying holistic metrics to measure performance and track progress. Through the BREEAM certification process, the owner was introduced to a comprehensive set of metrics that can be applied cross-portfolio to assess and drive sustainable improvements. 

As Iron Mountain continued its sustainability journey with VA3B1, the company faced new challenges in proactively addressing the full scope of site planning and design from the outset of a project. Unlike AZP-2, where certification began in Phase II of construction, VA3B1 presented an opportunity to engage earlier in the process, requiring a deeper focus on the broader environmental and community impacts — including a heightened emphasis on biodiversity, land use, and ecology. In this regard, the certification process for VA3B1 demanded a more holistic approach, with Iron Mountain navigating the complexities of integrating sustainable practices earlier into the design phase — ensuring that the entire site, its location, and the construction process used support long-term resilience for both the asset and its surrounding community. This shift to more proactive planning marked a notable and common challenge successfully navigated by Iron Mountain Data Centers, and an important evolution in this industry leader’s commitment to sustainable, future-proofed infrastructure.

In 2022, AZP-2 became the first ever BREEAM-certified data center in North America. Through this certification, Iron Mountain demonstrated its commitment to sustainability by implementing measures that significantly improved performance during the design stage. These efforts included producing detailed energy use simulations, refining building material selection, and reducing water consumption by over 50%, lowering costs and carbon emissions for future tenants.  

Moreover, leveraging its previous work with BREEAM, Iron Mountain gained valuable insights into the key categories, impacts, and metrics necessary to achieve strong sustainable data center performance. By applying these learnings to the construction and operation of AZP-2 and the design of VA3B1, Iron Mountain was able to strategically incorporate features and deploy sustainable solutions that are continuously fostering stronger performance. 

In continuing to measure and certify data center performance through BREEAM, Iron Mountain Data Centers can more effectively track sustainable challenges, opportunities, and improvements across its portfolio. Achieving both design and post-construction certification for AZP-2 enabled the owner to uncover and address performance gaps identified during the design phase, making improvements during construction and through the post-construction phase. Similarly, at VA3B1, Iron Mountain benefitted insights acquired during its first design certification process, leading the owner to comprehensively evaluate its sustainable strategy and adjust its approach to incorporate learnings from other BREEAM-certified facilities. This approach also allows Iron Mountain to compare different assets within its portfolio, as well as the past versus present performance of an individual asset — an invaluable benefit for a forward-looking, sustainably-minded industry leader. 

As a global operator, Iron Mountain Data Centers also benefits from BREEAM’s respected international presence, which streamlines and standardizes the benchmarking and certification process across its international portfolio. In achieving BREEAM certification, Iron Mountain and its stakeholders are reassured that asset performance is being tracked against stringent benchmarks that surpass domestic best practices. 

BREEAM’s thoughtful, tailored approach to data center certification was a final factor that drove Iron Mountain’s decision to pursue this certification standard. Instead of a “one-size-fits-all” model, BREEAM offers a framework that accurately takes into account the nuanced sustainable landscape surrounding the data center market.