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London, UK (21 September 2021) – Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, today announced that it has become a lead sponsor of the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA). Vertiv will apply its expertise, global reach and lead position in several key data center technology areas to support SDIA’s mission to bring together key players from across the critical infrastructure arena to meet sustainability goals.
Established in 2019, the SDIA is a non-profit network of more than 65 organizations across Europe and beyond, working to catalyze the transition to sustainable digital infrastructure. It aligns all stakeholders of the digital ecosystem – from energy supply and data centers, to fiber-optic networks and software – on the mission of fostering a sustainable digital economy and realizing their Roadmap to Sustainable Digital Infrastructure by 2030.
Max Schulze, SDIA's Executive Chairman, welcomed Vertiv to the Alliance. “Vertiv’s experience and expertise in the critical infrastructure sector, including data centers, is well established. Together we will continue to develop new concepts and technologies to make climate-neutral data centers and digital infrastructure a reality.”
Commenting on the partnership with the SDIA, Giordano Albertazzi, president for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Vertiv, said: “Achieving a successful transition to a sustainable and digital future will require the cooperation of a wide variety of stakeholders, including governments as well as organizations from across the energy and technology industries. Vertiv is proud to support a group such as the SDIA, which can help bring together these contributors and align them toward the common goal of developing a sustainable digital economy.”
Initially, Vertiv and the SDIA will focus their relationship around Europe – currently at the forefront of sustainability technology development as well as government regulation and investment.
Vertiv’s membership of the SDIA follows similar initiatives with organizations such as the European Data Centre Association (EUDCA), which Vertiv joined in 2018. Vertiv, via its membership of the EUDCA, is also helping to contribute to the development of the recently announced Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact. The pact is a major self-regulatory initiative setting targets that put the cloud and data center industry on a path to meet the European Commission’s goal for climate-neutral data centers by 2030, and supporting the wider goal of the European Green Deal to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.
The cooperation with the SDIA is the latest in a series of advances Vertiv has made around sustainability and the wider Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) arena. Vertiv recently released a series of highly-efficient products in EMEA, such as the Liebert® EXM2 uninterruptible power supply (UPS), the Liebert® AFC inverter screw chiller with low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant, and the innovative Vertiv™ Liebert® EXL S1 UPS with Dynamic Grid Support feature, which allows energy-intensive industries to utilise UPS systems in a proactive way and support the transition to green energy sources. As intermittent renewables continue to challenge conventional electric power generation, new energy storage services are required to help meet sustainability goals, generate revenues, and reduce energy bills. In March 2021, Vertiv also announced that it had supported Norwegian colocation provider Green Mountain in deploying cutting-edge technologies to further increase efficiency and sustainability at what was already among the greenest data centers in the world.
Some of the immediate areas of cooperation between SDIA and Vertiv will include the advancement of grid-interactive technologies. SDIA’s membership, which spans data center technology suppliers and operators as well as energy companies, is well placed to help with the development and deployment of new solutions which can improve the integration between critical infrastructure and energy grids.
To learn more about the cooperation between Vertiv and the SDIA, join the panel session How is the climate imperative stimulating innovation? at the upcoming DCD Europe virtual event on 13 October 2021 at 10:00 AM BST / 11:00 AM CEST.
About Vertiv
Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) brings together hardware, software, analytics, and ongoing services to ensure its customers’ vital applications run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs. Vertiv solves the most important challenges facing today’s data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial facilities with a portfolio of power, cooling, and IT infrastructure solutions and services that extends from the cloud to the edge of the network. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, USA, Vertiv employs approximately 21,000 people and does business in more than 130 countries. For more information, and for the latest news and content from Vertiv, visit Vertiv.com.
About SDIA
Established in 2019 and co-based in Germany and the Netherlands, the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance e.V. (SDIA) is a nonprofit network of more than 65 members and partners working to catalyze the transition to a sustainable digital economy. The SDIA brings together stakeholders from across industries and fields, both public and private, to realize its Roadmap to Sustainable Digital Infrastructure by 2030. It is meant to offer a holistic, systems-thinking approach to solving the challenges facing ICT sustainability, ranging from energy supply and data centers, to fiber-optic networks and software.