In today’s carbon conscious world, Information Technology is focused on doing much more computing using far less energy. CME Group has certainly followed that plan.
CME Group’s new data center, DC3, is the size of four NFL football fields and just as green.
DC3 provides critical support to all internal and external business systems, including CME Globex, clearing and regulatory and provides continuous power and cooling to these systems. In planning and building out DC3, sustainability was the focus of three core areas: data center design, construction and operating practices. The result is an industry-leading union of technology and environmental sustainability.
"Green efforts are usually cost effective, but as a corporate citizen, being environmentally sustainable is equally important. It benefits the entire community," says Joe Panfil, managing director of enterprise technology services at CME Group. "We attempted to extend green practices into everything we did."
One element is the data center’s 130,000 square foot reflective white roof, which dramatically reduces roof surface temperatures, lowering cooling costs.
CME Group’s green construction practices include reducing waste and recycling materials. For example, 1,600 tons of concrete and roof gravel were reused during DC3 construction. This translates into a saving of 4,640 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency waste reduction model. Additionally, more than 3,100 yards of construction debris, cardboard and steel have been sorted and recycled to date.
"We were also able to salvage 17 mature trees from the data construction site. We stored them at a farm during construction, and they have since been replanted along the data center’s south boundary," Panfil says.
The DC3 operating practices strive to improve energy efficiency of electrical and mechanical equipment. DC3 is the first CME Group data center with its own power substation, allowing power to be distributed at a much higher voltage, with better efficiency, flexibility and environmental sustainability.
DC3 is adopting other technologies, such as evaporative condensing and heat recovery wheels, to promote "free cooling." During the winter months, the outside temperature can cool a chilled-water system, allowing the chiller’s compressor to be shut down, thus reducing energy consumption more than 35 percent of the year. While green practices have obvious benefits, DC3 was also built with customer service in mind.
"We built the new data center using knowledge from previous builds and augment them with the latest technology in the industry. This brings a higher level of excellence to our customers in the form of reliability and performance," says Panfil. "Additionally, we allowed a large amount of space for expansion. This will permit us to grow as needed to accommodate our global customers."
