Sept. 23, 2008 - Banking giant HSBC has achieved the U.K.’s first "Excellent" rating for design and procurement of its new North London datacenter under the Building Research Establishment’s BREEAM green-building certification, the European alternative to LEED.

The building, due for completion in the first half of 2009, is part of the bank’s $40 million commitment to improve the environmental performance of its office buildings around the world.

HSBC has pledged that all new datacenter construction within its global operations will be designed according to local environmentally accredited standards such as BREEAM and LEED. The bank has already opened green office buildings in the U.S. and in Mexico in accordance with the LEED framework.

"HSBC’s datacenters are a significant and essential part of our portfolio supporting the Banks operations," says Peter Trusler, group head of corporate real estate, HSBC. "By rolling out environmental initiatives which minimize our energy use in these large buildings, HSBC is showing its commitment to ensuring efficient use of resources. Developing our datacenter to BREEAM criteria enables us to benchmark and improve our environmental performance."

HSBC has embarked on a five-year, $90 million global environmental efficiency program to reduce the group’s broader impact on the environment.

Companies across all sectors are investing in green datacenters. IT provider ADC recently poured $100 million into a state-of-the-art green datacenter that has earned LEED Platinum pre-certification. And Monsanto’s $21 million datacenter is now one of just a handful of computing facilities to achieve LEED green building certification in the U.S.