Efficient Products and Systems
Vertiv is committed to working with our customers in solving the complex problems related to critical digital infrastructure. We believe that being mindful of product design, development, use, and disposal is important to the longevity of our industry. Our approach to meeting our customers’ demands for growing critical digital infrastructure while helping them reduce their impact on the environment rests on five key principles:
- High efficiency: Design and deliver solutions that are energy and water efficient.
- High reliability: Build resilient and highly serviceable equipment that is durable and long lasting.
- Low impact: Understand and limit manufacturing processes that may have adverse environmental impacts and increase use of recyclable materials in our products and packaging.
- Low touch: Enable remote troubleshooting, optimization services, and increased connectivity to reduce the environmental impact of maintenance practices.
- Circular economy: Enable the reuse, refurbishment, and recycling of end-of-life equipment.
Power Solutions
Vertiv offers a wide range of mission-critical power products and systems that offer class-leading efficiency by leveraging technologies such as Trinergy™ and Dynamic Online operating mode. For instance, our Vertiv™ Liebert® EXL S1 UPS with Dynamic Online Mode enables operating efficiency up to 99% and is more energy efficient as compared to a standard online UPS. The Vertiv™ Liebert® Trinergy™ Cube UPS automatically selects the most efficient operating mode based on input power conditions to provide greater than 98% system efficiency without compromising critical load uptime. We also offer ENERGY STAR certified UPS systems in eight product lines covering more than 70 models. Further, we are helping customers lower their energy costs through UPS systems with Dynamic Grid Support features.
Preparing for a Carbon-Free Future: Steps Colos Can Take to Reduce Reliance on Carbon-Based Energy
Thermal Management
Our water-free Vertiv™ Liebert® DSE free-cooling economization system saves up to 4 million gallons of water per unit, per year compared to some water-based thermal management systems. We also offer energy-efficient, low-GWP refrigerant chillers and have introduced thermal wall units that use low-GWP refrigerants. These solutions are designed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, limit carbon footprint, and operate with higher energy efficiency. On the system level, our Vertiv™ Liebert® iCOM™-S thermal system supervisory control provides up to 40% higher efficiency for managing data center cooling infrastructure compared to operating without a management system.
Impact of Water Usage on Data Center Costs and Sustainability
Alternative Energy
Vertiv solutions can enable operators to harness energy from alternative sources, such as solar and wind. This includes our Vertiv™ eSure™ solar converter that connects solar panels to -48V DC power loads used in telecommunications networks, as well as the latest Vertiv™ NetSure™ M Series outdoor enclosure, a solution designed to support 5G and edge networks, that enables constant power including battery backup, temperature and humidity control, and allows the use of solar panels and other energy sources. We also design and manufacture converters, which are key components utilized in solar and wind applications to harness energy.
For telecom cell sites, we offer solar energy solutions that can be used as the primary power source for remote facilities off the power grid and as supplemental energy sources for those that are connected to the grid. Our high efficiency rectifiers help telecom carriers save on energy and reduce the emissions associated with energy production.
Evaluating the Potential for Fuel Cells for Data Center Power
Circular Economy
When UPS units reach the end of their useful life, relying on them to support critical infrastructure becomes increasingly risky. We introduced the Vertiv Trade-in Program in the United States to help mitigate this risk for our customers, which allows them to upgrade their legacy single-phase UPS systems at a reduced cost and responsibly dispose and recycle such units. In compliance with the Recycling Industry Operating Standard (RIOS), Vertiv facilitates the shipment of returned equipment to an R2:2013-certified recycler at no cost to our customers. We also have worked with a lifecycle assessment (LCA) consultancy to conduct an LCA on one of our DC power products. This study provides the insights needed to enhance capabilities in this area and will support efforts to complete further studies across product lines.
Partnering for Progress
In 2022, Vertiv continued to collaborate with customers, peers, and other groups to reduce the environmental impact of our industry. Here are some of the organizations with which we are working:
- The EcoEdge Prime Power (E2P2) Project - E2P2 is a European Union-funded research program that aims to develop and demonstrate low environmental impact fuel cells to power data center environments.
- The Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA) - The SDIA brings together stakeholders from across industries and fields to realize its roadmap to sustainable digital infrastructure.
- The European Data Centre Association (EUDCA) - EUDCA is contributing to the development of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, a self-regulatory initiative setting guidelines to help meet the European Commission’s goal of climate-neutral data centers by 2050.
- RISE Partnership Program - Vertiv is a founding partner in RISE, a research institute overseeing a program to help advance sustainability in the data center industry.
- Sustainable Tropical Data Centre Testbed (STDCT) - STDC is a program that aims to understand and address the cooling needs of tropical data centers to meet challenges pertaining to power and cooling consumption, carbon footprint, and increasing rack density.
- U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E COOLERCHIPS - This initiative aims to develop high-performance cooling systems for compute electronics, enabling a new class of computational systems and data centers, potentially driving next-generation cooling technologies that will reduce the environmental impact of data centers.
Responsible Operations
Vertiv strives to conserve energy and minimize our carbon and waste footprint by working to improve the efficiency of our products, facilities and processes.
Vertiv leadership believes that adopting environmental standards in our operations is in the interest of our employees, customers, shareholders and the communities in which we operate.
As part of our goal of continuous improvement, Vertiv leverages our Vertiv Operating System (VOS) as an enterprise-wide approach to train employees on and hold them accountable for identifying and eliminating waste in our production processes.
Operational Efficiency
In 2022, we advanced tracking and monitoring of our key environmental impacts by partnering with an environmental consultant to streamline processes to gather environmental impact metrics, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy use, water consumption, and waste generation and recycling. This partnership lends additional credibility to our reporting by confirming a high level of data integrity and continuity in process. Based on this analysis, we are evaluating and developing action plans to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, as well as other key environmental impacts.
In 2022, we implemented a number of energy- and carbon-efficiency projects across our global operations:
- The Vertiv Myanyang facility in China earned the “Green Plant” title by the Sichuan government for its sustainability efforts, including its emphasis on efficiency and recyclability.
- Our Delaware, Ohio, facility in North America is installing an on-site solar field as part of a larger microgrid demonstration initiative that will support our efforts to develop next-generation products and systems.
- In India, we installed 700 kilovolt-amps (kVA) of regenerative loads, which recycles output power into usable energy, increasing the energy efficiency of our operations.
- Across EMEA, several Vertiv factories purchased renewable energy for operations, with more planned to follow suit in future years.
- Our E+I Engineering facility in Ireland installed a system that recycles and reuses all process water used in manufacturing.
- We successfully piloted the use of hybrid vehicles in our service fleet in EMEA and North America and are planning to expand the program.
Environmental Management
Vertiv employs environmental management systems at our manufacturing facilities across our worldwide footprint.
We have developed these systems in alignment with globally recognized standards from ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, and we are working toward achieving ISO certification for all of our environmental and energy management systems globally.
Many of our sites have achieved the ISO 14001 certification, the leading credential for responsible administration of an environmental management system. In 2022, we determined relevant certifications for each site and created a roadmap that prioritized certification at key locations. As of December 31, 2022, 63% of Vertiv’s eligible locations carry the ISO 14001 credential.
