Portus operates its business and data centers in a sustainable and responsible manner.
At all times Portus strives to protect the environment, positively contribute to society, and ensure good governance.
Below we include several initiatives that are contributing to these goals.
We also consider sustainability as part of our investment decision making process, with a positive bias for investments that contribute to our ESG goals and net zero ambitions.
PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT
We are committed towards reaching net zero emissions by 2050 in line with a 1.5 degree temperature increase limit scenario. We are achieving this through several initiatives outlined below, and we are continually seeking new opportunities to reduce our adverse impacts on the environment through our operations and are in the process of adopting a science based net zero target.
OPTIMISING OUR ENERGY AND WATER CONSUMPTION
We continuously assess the energy and water usage of our data centers and the related infrastructure to ensure that they are operated in as efficient a manner as possible. When undertaking equipment replacements we ensure that efficiency is a paramount factor in our decision making.
For the datacenters we have under design and construction we aim to provide world leading efficiency characteristics, including the potential for on-site renewable energy generation.
All energy used across the group is certified as being sourced from renewables.
We have mandated the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil (“HVO”) to run our generators across all our sites. Portus is the first datacenter company in Luxembourg to adopt the use of HVO.
MINIMISING POLLUTION AND WASTE
We report our waste generated on a quarterly basis and aim to ensure that all waste is disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner (i.e. recycled).
POSITIVELY CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY
Data centers comprise of technically and operationally complex electrical and mechanical infrastructure and require strong safety oversight.
The safety and welfare of our employees, suppliers and customers is paramount. We strive to ensure a safe environment for all users of and visitors to our data centers.
Training is at the centre of these standards across Portus, underpinned by defined procedures and support systems.
We report all health and safety incidents and near misses to the board of the relevant group company, allowing us to take action to mitigate future incidents and we seek to continuously improve our safety environment.
We support local and international initiatives, with the goal of making a positive contribution to society and our local communities. This includes various initiatives such as:
- providing local students with internships, tours of our facilities, and educational sessions about the data center industry and its role and importance in todays society;
- making charitable donations to various local and international charities including supporting the planting of trees as part of a forest conservation program in Burkina Faso;
- the sponsorship of local sports events such as ‘Mopo Team-Staffellauf’ in Hamburg;
- sponsoring local networking events of the technical internet community;
- supporting several regional free Wifi initiatives (‘Freifunk’) and hosting DNS root nameservers; and
- the sponsorship of various industry conferences.
The IT infrastructure that Portus houses is core to the functioning of modern society. The highly efficient and sustainable data centers provided by Portus to its customers supports the general trend of IT outsourcing, which has a positive environmental impact.
Portus is developing new data centers that will house the IT infrastructure of future generations in highly sustainable, well connected facilities.
GOOD GOVERNANCE
GOOD GOVERNANCE IS ESSENTIAL FOR A WELL-OPERATING BUSINESS
The board of directors and management team have oversight of all material business activities, including ESG matters and key decisions, through board meetings and regular ESG reporting.
This begins with compliance with regulations and guiding principles governing the protection of human rights, operational and occupational health and safety, environmental, and business practices in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Our sites also voluntarily take part in several industry-relevant quality standards and accreditations. These help to validate the robust processes and procedures that are in place to ensure our services are delivered to a high standard to customers.
EUROPEAN CODE OF CONDUCT FOR DATA CENTERS
Portus has adopted the European Code of Conduct for Data Centers, a voluntary program aimed at reducing energy consumption in the data center industry. Participation in this program involves the measurement of energy consumption, setting of targets, evaluation of operational processes against a set of best practices, and annual measurement and evaluation against the targets.
All Portus’ group companies are either participants or are in the process of becoming participants.
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Portus aims to contribute positively to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the UN member states in 2015 and is in the process of evaluating which of these goals are most applicable to it.
EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT OF OUR PERFORMANCE
We will participate in GRESB, a 3rd party benchmark to independently assess our ESG performance, for the first time in 2023.
The GRESB benchmark assesses our performance across several ESG categories and metrics and compares us to our peers and other infrastructure companies and is a useful tool in helping us track our progress on ESG matters and identify areas in which we can improve.
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