 |
| Amber Schiada |
CHICAGO, IL – JLL recently
brought together top data center thought leaders to discuss the main factors
affecting the industry at its 2022 Data Center Forum.
Held
in Park City, Utah, the key insights gained from the forum include carbon
accounting, sustainability, infrastructure challenges in emerging markets and
investment appetite.
“The
overall goal of the Data Center Forum was to create an environment to define
issues impacting the industry and educate, collaborate and challenge the way we
deploy and operate data centers today,” said Brian Kortendick, JLL
Executive Director, Global Data Center Strategy.
 |
Brian Kortendick
|
“Sustainability is at the forefront of
industry challenges, we all, together, need a concentrated effort to develop
new concepts, practices and innovative approaches to achieve sustainability
goals.”
You
cannot measure what you cannot define
Like
other commercial real estate asset classes, data centers all have high initial
carbon output. With its high reliance on power consumption, the ongoing
operational carbon output is materially higher, thus data center owners have an
obligation to invest in sustainable ways of doing business.
Carbon
accounting, or greenhouse gas accounting, is how organizations quantify their
greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon tagging – which summarizes the GHG data –
as a practice will be an essential part of carbon accounting moving forward.
JLL recommends that all organizations prepare
for this new process.
 |
| Sean Farney |
“Whether
self-regulated through something like the iMasons Climate Accord or more
strictly regulated through the SEC in the U.S. and the Corporate Sustainability
Reporting Directive in the EU, the industry will soon have much more robust
need for sustainability assessment, accounting, reporting and monitoring,” said
Sean Farney, JLL Executive Director for Data Center Strategy and
Innovation.
Adapting
and/or optimizing existing processes for sustainable operations
Because
the data center industry is astute at being able to continually adapt and
improve, it can excel at sustainable operations, and all operational elements
within the data center space represent sustainability opportunities.
Companies
must first assess their entire mechanical and electrical plant and take
advantage of reliability-based maintenance that structures asset replacements
and investments toward operational objectives that materially overlap with
driving sustainability goals.
 |
Daniel Kirschner
|
“The
tradeoff between investments in sustainable objectives and revenue-generating
assets for companies will always be a challenge,” added Daniel Kirschner,
JLL Head of Growth and Business Development, Work Dynamics.
“The
key is strong governance with top-down support and initiatives that take
advantage of both increasing reliability and reducing carbon output
concurrently. Both objectives can go hand in hand with a proactive, and
predictive, maintenance and replacement approach.”
Powering
through challenges
JLL’s
recent Data Center Outlook discussed
emerging markets and how absorption has reached new records in the U.S., with
hyperscalers driving the demand and creating fierce competition in the market
by paying top dollar to secure sites. This has also led to an imbalance between
supply and demand.
“Power
supply is critical, and having access to power secured in time with delivery
will drive success in leasing, as data center users need speed to market and
confidence in delivery in order to commit,” said Amber Schiada, JLL Head
of Americas Data Center Research.
 |
Carl Beardsley
|
“The
capital appetite towards data centers far exceeds the volume of opportunities,”
said Carl Beardsley, Senior Director, JLL Capital Markets.
“The
volatile debt markets have impacted commercial real estate valuations across
all asset classes, but data centers are viewed as resilient, high-yielding
investments and will continue to remain in high demand.”
There’s
a healthy mix across the market for speculative versus build-to-suit
investments. Spec developers are getting sites “pad ready” with infrastructure
but are waiting to build vertical until a tenant is secured.
Alternatively,
developers will build the shell but wait for a tenant for their unique fit-out
needs.
 |
| Andy Cvengros |
“The
size and velocity of recent leases being completed has led to significant
availability constraints that will only get worse in 2023 across most of the
major markets,” said Andy Cvengros, JLL Managing Director.
“This
will be exacerbated by limited available land for development, transmission
power delivery lead times and product availability.
"We
expect some relief in 2024; however significant preleasing will continue to
drive issues in capacity pipeline projections moving forward. We should see new
submarket expansion and further secondary market development to alleviate the
constraints.”
For
more news, videos and research resources on JLL, please visit our newsroom.
CONTACT:
Kimberly
Steele
Phone: +1
713 852-3420
Email: Kimberly.Steele@jll.com
jll.com.
