Cologix plans to use its first LEED Gold-certified data centre, MTL8 in Montreal, as a template for building more efficient, low-carbon AI facilities, Green Biz Canada reported.

The 206,000-square-foot site was recently certified by the Canadian Green Business Council. The facility performs better than the Denver-based company’s average energy-efficiency levels and draws power from Quebec’s largely renewable electricity grid, according to Green Biz. A green roof further reduces the building’s heating and cooling needs.

“The huge learnings that we’ve had from building MTL8 — being able to apply those to all of our builds going forward, that’s going to be a needle mover for us,” Page Haun, who serves both ESG officer and chief marketing officer for Cologix, told Sustainable Biz.

Data centres have drawn widespread criticism for their large electricity demand, emissions output and water consumption. The Alberta government has begun incentivizing developers who use their facilities’ own electricity sources or secure offtake agreements before launching construction.

Cologix considered data centres’ environmental impacts while designing and developing MTL8. The facility was was “conceived and built with environmental stewardship at its core,” Haun told Sustianable Biz.

Haun said lessons learned from the project will shape future developments across Cologix’s portfolio.

The company operates 46 data centres in Canada and the U.S., including facilities in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.

Pictured: New LEED Gold-certified MTL8 data centre in Montreal.

Photo: Cologix