Interview: CyrusOne on the sustainable innovation that drives datacentre enterprise outcomes
Talking to Pc Weekly from colocation large CyrusOne’s head workplace in Dallas, Texas, the corporate’s vice-president of environmental, well being, security and sustainability (EHS), Kyle Myers, says that whereas methods that cut back power use shrink your payments, there’s extra to it than that.
Sustainability initiatives and the kind of strategic liaison work that comes with carrying that individual hat are additionally fairly often extremely trusted initiatives, the place companions are eager to work collectively. So, sustainability conversations can and do ship “the perfect intel” in ways in which finally drive innovation via sharing and transparency, Myers says.
“[EHS] is definitely a revenue centre within the firm,” he says. “I do know folks are inclined to assume it isn’t. In comparison with another hats that I’ve worn, sustainability is often not a value centre.”
Myers agrees that knowledge is the brand new oil, as we’ve so typically heard, responding: “Sure, [it’s] all that good things. Folks like to share greatest practices. Talking with clients is the place I hear what’s progressive, what they’re engaged on and which rivals they’d level to.”
And, usually, there’s openness. Many see the potential for the higher good, for each sustainability and firm valuations.
Digging into previous job historical past
Myers doesn’t particularly come from a datacentre or IT background. Earlier than shifting to the cloud, because it had been, he spent a decade within the manufacturing and chemical substances trade.
His bachelors in environmental public well being and security netted an early function at a chemical substances remedy, storage and disposal facility coping with waste cyanide, chlorine and the like. Following up with an MBA, Myers then had stints at massive corporations reminiscent of Dean Meals, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Dwelling Depot, in addition to the College of Florida.
“My final firm was going into chapter 11, so it made sense to leap. And I simply occurred to get a name saying, ‘We’re searching for any individual in a datacentre’,” he says. “I stated I don’t actually know what which means, amd, ‘You’ve acquired the unsuitable particular person’.”
However the extra Myers heard, the extra his curiosity was piqued. A variety of datacentres relied on pretty new disciplines, together with environmental or sustainability points.
“Most security folks would say, and I feel that is additionally true for environmental, that manufacturing and industrial is gold-standard expertise,” he provides. “You’re coping with hazardous waste, harmful chemical substances and huge items of apparatus. You possibly can’t afford to make errors – it does have a little bit splash of pleasure to it as properly.”
With well being and security and environmental issues spanning his complete profession thus far, shifting to a give attention to greenhouse gases (GHGs) and local weather change was virtually a pure development. Though, when Myers was in school, it was issues reminiscent of acid rain that triggered extra fear throughout the sector.
“I’m not saying corporations didn’t have programmes or didn’t take into consideration sustainability, [and] that it wasn’t central to most corporations. That isn’t true, at the very least not within the worlds I’ve labored in,” he says.
Nonetheless, working with among the largest clients on the earth, and maybe being primarily based on the US West Coast, means corporations typically take sustainability very significantly. Such organisations have “very aggressive targets”, Myers explains.
A world of prospects – in silos
As soon as satisfied and sitting at CyrusOne, Myers noticed the agency wanted to pay extra consideration to sustainability, considering via its place to know what it did and didn’t wish to do. A world of prospects existed, typically in silos, and wanted determining, he says.
“Our firm, like many others, did sustainability stuff, however they didn’t actually consider it beneath that matter. About six years in the past, we first identified the necessity to have a central give attention to simply sustainability,” Myers says.
It wanted to know engineering, operations, building, finance and assume all the things they did via. Myers staff then began a sustainability working group, a cross-functional staff that meets each month. It contains a number of enterprise capabilities, reminiscent of advertising, human sources (HR), engineering, operations, building and extra.
Since then, working at CyrusOne has been “like driving a rocket ship”, Myers says. This isn’t simply because progress causes – the corporate now has 55 datacentres throughout North America and Asia-Pacific, in addition to Europe, Center East and Africa, up from 30 datacentres and 300 staff when Myers joined the corporate “a little bit over eight years in the past” – however due to the significance of innovation.
The long run is altering so quick, which implies the expertise itself is getting more and more tough to foretell, Myers says, including: “The hardest factor for our ongoing operations – with amenities constructed [that has] acquired stuff in it and it’s working, from a value and enterprise interplay perspective – is surprises.”
Planning upfront, as groups usually favor, is a problem. It is advisable take into consideration the subsequent new building and inexperienced constructing targets properly forward of time, says Myers. At CyrusOne, the sustainability staff must “kick the tyres” on maybe 15 totally different requirements, ascertaining two or three that is likely to be the perfect match.
Then you should actuality test, work with the design staff and the development staff, and do some pricing. Then, uncover how one can remedy the array of challenges in a well timed method, earlier than you’re dedicated to the least most suitable choice and signed a contract for the unsuitable factor, with deliveries held up for 9 months, provides Myers.
He feels that he has been capable of expedite that course of in some methods by centralising the sustainability operate, together with associated – and important – storytelling.
The concept is to remain synchronised worldwide, to talk to updates or challenges – or something that falls within the environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG) area – that people ought to pay attention to. That helps guarantee everybody on totally different initiatives is shifting collectively virtually and pragmatically in an organised course, says Myers.
“It wasn’t all the time that method,” he provides. “Additionally, it’s laborious to achieve success with out having that kind of relationship. From the very starting, it grew to become clear that, even simply to have transparency, that’s all the time been the cornerstone of what we tried to do.”
“I’m pleased with the quantity we’re doing [the sustainability initiatives] at. Doing issues portfolio-wide, it takes a very, actually very long time”
Kyle Myers, CyrusOne
In terms of capabilities circuitously “environmental”, reminiscent of HR, Myers notes that he isn’t liable for that. Nonetheless, he does report out on issues they may do or that have an effect on the sustainability area, and he could problem the division to think about reporting on some component or different that does have an impact or focus on setting a associated purpose.
“It’s by necessity. I don’t understand how you can operate and get something carried out with out some kind (of construction) like that,” he says.
All of that’s half of what’s so satisfying about his job, Myers says, though of the a number of particular person initiatives, the true accomplishments are years within the making.
Over six years, it’s been about incorporating sustainability in all points of the enterprise. That features initiatives such because the 18 inexperienced constructing and waste certifications, additionally financed “so we pay for ourselves”, as CyrusOne was capable of spotlight in its 2025 sustainability report.
Programmes embrace a Gold from environmental rankings agency EcoVadis, Inexperienced Globes constructing certification, Constructing Analysis Institution Environmental Evaluation Methodology (BREEAM) sustainable constructing certification, a Complete Useful resource Use and Effectivity (TRUE) Gold ranking, and ReWorksSA Recycling programme from San Antonio metropolis, Texas.
Final yr, CyrusOne additionally dedicated to attain BREEAM or Management in Vitality and Environmental Design (LEED) certification in any respect new standard-build datacentres.
“Additionally in 2024, we secured $14bn (£10.6bn) of debt financing for datacentre progress, of which $11bn are sustainability linked. To get these issues, we began 4 or 5 years in the past,” Myers says. “First, we ask if we wish to do one thing, after which, what are the drivers and concept of worth?”
Their evaluation additionally entails attempting to measure and work out what prices come together with all that. Is the associated fee value calculating? What worth would possibly that add or subtract? Solely then is it usually time to start shifting ahead.
“I’m pleased with the quantity we’re doing [the sustainability initiatives] at. Doing issues portfolio-wide, it takes a very, actually very long time,” says Myers.
Robust, sustained technique will get outcomes
General, the technique is getting outcomes at decoupling enterprise progress from carbon progress. The datacentre operator calculated that versus enterprise growth of 70%, its carbon emissions have decreased 29% in the course of the calendar yr 2024 – greater than assembly its Science Based mostly Targets initiative (SBTi) goal by 16 proportion factors.
“We additionally disclose water utilization, which is uncommon within the datacentre sector. These steps mirror our perception that credible, empirical reporting is crucial for belief and progress,” says Myers.
Getting this far, unsurprisingly, has taken years of labor – incorporating power effectivity initiatives, carbon-free electrical energy contracts, and work with clients which have procured their very own low-emissions electrical energy contracts for CyrusOne datacentres. The general purpose is local weather neutrality by 2030, as outlined utilizing SBTi metrics, Myers confirms.
“Since 95% of our Scope 1 and a couple of footprint comes from electrical energy, our focus is on accelerating renewable procurement and effectivity,” he provides.
For diesel backup turbines, CyrusOne is exploring alternate options reminiscent of hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO) and even initiatives that get rid of backup energy fully, pushed by evolving buyer necessities. These improvements will transfer the corporate towards local weather neutrality with out relying closely on offsets.
And for the long run? Banks are sticking with their commitments, however clearly points have arisen.
Whereas the 1.5°C goal seems to be to be shifting additional away, CyrusOne will proceed to construct resilience in opposition to local weather impacts and aggressively cut back its carbon footprint aligned with science-based targets and planning for various “local weather futures”, he says.
“It shouldn’t be controversial to say that present US coverage course is one thing we’d like to concentrate on. Nonetheless, the excellent news is that a lot compute energy is being consolidated on a handful of corporations. They’ve held their place; they preserve or improve what they’re asking, whether or not that’s constructing one thing or working one thing for them,” says Myers.
