Digital Realty Trust, Inc. Facility Earns First LEED Gold Certification in the U.S. Datacenter Industry

November 2, 2007; 05:23 AM
San Francisco and Chicago -- Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), a leading owner and manager of corporate datacenters and Internet gateways, has earned the datacenter industry's first LEED Gold Certification. The project is a Build-to-Suit datacenter for a Fortune Global 500 company located in Digital Realty Trust's 350 East Cermak Road facility in Chicago. The recently LEED Gold certified datacenter features 20,000 square feet of raised-floor space with 4,000 kW of available IT load.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System(TM) is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings' performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

"This is an important milestone for Digital Realty Trust and for the entire datacenter industry. This facility establishes a new benchmark for energy efficient datacenters, and it reflects Digital Realty Trust's continued leadership in implementing green datacenter initiatives that make sense for our corporate customers' bottom line and for their commitment to the environment," said Michael F. Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust.

"LEED certification is a widely respected standard for evaluating green design, construction and operations for facilities, and it is rapidly emerging as a competitive advantage in the datacenter market. Customers are increasingly making green criteria a core element of their selection process for datacenter decisions. Our ability to offer LEED-certified facilities along with our proven track record of green initiatives makes us uniquely qualified to meet these customer requirements," said Jim Smith, Vice President of Engineering at Digital Realty Trust. "We initiated this LEED certification more than 12 months ago -- well before other datacenter companies started their certification processes -- and our continued efforts in this area will keep us on the forefront of green datacenter initiatives in the industry."

Smith added, "This project shatters the myth that LEED certification can only be achieved within newer facilities. The initial phase of the 350 E. Cermak Road facility was originally constructed in 1917 as the R.R. Donnelly printing plant facility. Digital Realty Trust prides itself as a leader in these green datacenter initiatives, and this leadership is evidenced by our innovative approaches in both new and existing facilities."

A number of additional Digital Realty Trust datacenter facilities are also currently undergoing LEED certification and are projected to receive Gold or Silver certifications, including:

Turn-Key Datacenter(TM) in Chicago with 54,000 square feet of raised-floor space and 6,750 kW of IT load;

Turn-Key Datacenter(TM) in Northern Virginia with 32,000 square feet of raised-floor space and 4,500 kW of IT load; and

Turn-Key Datacenter(TM) in Santa Clara, California with 30,000 square feet of raised-floor space and 4,050 KW of IT load.

"LEED guidelines incorporate so many proven best practices for building engineering and construction," Smith continued. "Following those best practices results in facilities that are very cost-effective from both a construction and operations point of view. Anything that makes datacenters more efficient is a good thing from a business point of view -- both for our Digital Realty Trust and for our customers. We look forward to rolling out more LEED certified facilities in the near future."

For more information about LEED Gold Certification, visit http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19.

About Digital Realty Trust, Inc.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. owns, acquires, repositions and manages technology-related real estate. The Company is focused on providing Turn-Key Datacenter(TM) and Powered Base Building(TM) datacenter solutions for domestic and international tenants across a variety of industry verticals ranging from information technology and internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty Trust's 66 properties, excluding one property held as an investment in an unconsolidated joint venture, contain applications and operations critical to the day-to-day operations of technology industry tenants and corporate enterprise datacenter tenants. Comprising approximately 11.9 million rentable square feet, including 1.8 million square feet of space held for redevelopment, Digital Realty Trust's portfolio is located in 26 markets throughout North America and Europe. For additional information, please visit Digital Realty Trust's website at http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com.