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QTS announced on November 16, 2011, that Phase II of its Atlanta Metro data center had earned LEED Gold certification. The award applied to that phase—not necessarily the entire campus—and QTS paired it with rainwater capture, reported energy-efficiency gains, and plans for a multi-year efficiency investment.

What QTS earned in Atlanta

QTS received LEED Gold certification for Phase II of its Atlanta Metro data center, according to the November 16, 2011 announcement. That scope matters: the reported award was for a particular phase of a multi-tenant facility, not a statement that every building or later expansion on the campus was certified.

The announcement highlighted the challenge of applying green-building standards in a data center serving multiple tenants. U.S. Green Building Council president, COO, and founding chair Rick Fedrizzi noted that tenant agreements can require specific temperature and humidity conditions, limiting an operator’s freedom to change those settings in pursuit of efficiency.

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What QTS said it did to improve efficiency

Captured rainwater for cooling

QTS reported dedicating 4.5 acres of roof space to collecting rainwater for cooling. The announcement presents this as a water-management measure; it does not quantify the amount of water captured or the resulting reduction in potable-water use.

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Improved power usage effectiveness

QTS reported that power usage effectiveness (PUE) at Atlanta Metro had improved 11.4% since January 2010. PUE compares a data center’s total energy use with the energy delivered to its IT equipment; a lower value generally indicates that less power is used for supporting infrastructure relative to computing. The announcement gives the percentage improvement, but not the underlying PUE values or the measurement method.

Planned further investment

After an engagement with the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps, QTS said it planned a $10 million multi-year investment in efficiency measures. CTO Brian Johnston said the aim was to steward resources and pass cost savings to customers interested in greener operations. The figure was a planned investment, not a reported completed spend.

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The company also appeared in the EPA Green Power Partnership ranking: QTS’s 2018 ESG report, published in 2019, placed it 12th in the Tech & Telecom sector. That ranking is a company-level renewable-power participation indicator, not evidence that the Atlanta facility itself ran entirely on renewable electricity; see the QTS 2018 ESG report.

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How large was the Atlanta Metro facility?

A QTS Atlanta-Metro facility profile published in 2013 described the site as 970,000 square feet and listed a 120 MVA Georgia Power substation. MVA is a measure of apparent electrical power capacity, not the same as IT load or usable critical megawatts. These figures describe the facility profile at that time; they do not establish current campus size or current available capacity. The profile is available from Data Center Dynamics.

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How the campus changed after the award

In 2019, QTS announced an adjacent expansion of more than 250,000 square feet and 72 critical megawatts. The company said the existing campus was fully built out and near fully occupied. Those expansion figures describe the project announced in 2019, not an update to the Phase II certification. The announcement is available in QTS’s expansion release.

No authoritative current recertification or upgrade record is established by these historical announcements. The accurate claim is that Phase II earned LEED Gold in 2011; present-day certification status should not be inferred from that milestone.

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