The business secured the Environmental Impact Award for the innovative and responsible design of its ICE03 data center in Iceland. atNorth, the leading Nordic high-density colocation and built-to-suit data center provider, has won the ‘Environmental Impact Award’ at the Data Center Dynamics Awards, a category celebrating robust evidence of reducing the environmental impact of data center operations.
atNorth’s expansion of its ICE03 data center in Akureyri, Iceland topped the competition as a result of its design blueprint for data center ecosystems that integrates environmental stewardship with social and economic impact, ensuring long-term, sustainable growth.
ICE03 already benefits from the Nordic’s naturally cool climate and an abundance of renewable energy that enables highly energy efficient Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) and the site was built using sustainable materials such as the laminated wood product Glulam (as an alternative to steel beams) and Icelandic rockwool in addition to a care for the surrounding natural landscape.
All atNorth’s new data centers are designed to accommodate heat reuse equipment as standard and for ICE03, the business formed an alliance with the local municipality to reuse waste heat for community projects in Akureyri, including a community greenhouse that enables local school children to learn about ecological cultivation and sustainable food production. This partnership not only lowers the carbon footprint of the data center but aims to promote the sustainability of locally produced fresh vegetables. It also allows atNorth clients to decarbonize their IT workloads and contributes to the region’s circular economy. With a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of less than 1.2, compared to a global average of 1.56, the site is able to run high performance workloads in an environmentally responsible way.
AtNorth is also committed to good corporate citizenship and actively supports local education, charities, and community projects through volunteer work and financial donations. For example, a donation of a large amount of mechatronics equipment to the Vocational College of Akureyri assists in training local people for data center–related roles. The business has also sponsored a local run in Akureyri, supported local sports teams, the ski facility, and the local search and rescue team.
Additionally, the presence of atNorth’s ICE03 data center in Akureyri has facilitated a new point of presence (POP) in the area – that is a location where telecommunications networks interconnect to enable data transmission. The POP has been established by telecommunications business Farice, who operate 3 submarine cables connecting Iceland to mainland Europe. It will serve as an access point to the larger network and enable international traffic to be routed directly to mainland Europe, greatly enhancing telecommunications security and reliability of service for the benefit of the whole region.
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