Dr. Chris Pyke, Chief Innovation Officer, GRESB, the global sustainability benchmark for real assets, on the evolving strategies data centres are employing to address the dual challenges of rising energy demands and sustainability pressures – driven by advancements in AI and the ever-increasing global data needs.
It’s not news that the demand for data centers is growing fast, propelled by the rapid adoption of AI and related technologies.
High energy demands place data centers under intense scrutiny from not only regulators but also investors seeking strong returns while keeping their portfolios’ carbon footprints in check.
In fact, according to information from CBRE Research, 97% of investors surveyed expect to increase their allocations to data centers and 93% of those investors described sustainability information as either very or at least somewhat important to their decision making.
Last year, GRESB participants reported data centers in more than 840 locations through the 2024 Real Estate and Infrastructure assessments. This included 17 real estate funds and 24 infrastructure companies. Overall, data center participation increased by 28% year-over-year. The geographic distribution of participants reflected global patterns in data center development and operations.
Information from GRESB participants provides insights about data center responses to ever-increasing sustainability expectations and emerging regulations.
- Investors want information about the sustainability of data center investments, including new construction and standing operations.
- Investors are divided in their classification of data centers. Some categorize data centers as real estate, focusing on strong leasing fundamentals and high-quality tenants. Others describe data centers as infrastructure, often looking to build and sell.
- Data center investment opportunities are geographically concentrated. Resource constraints in core areas is encouraging growth in secondary and tertiary markets.
- Investors and managers vary in their expectations for reporting. Real estate investors focus on facility-level reporting, mirroring other property types. These investors expect “bottom-up” information, aggregating data from individual facilities to companies. Infrastructure investors prefer aggregated, company level reporting. Infrastructure investors do not expect disaggregated information or have overriding privacy concerns. These contrasting perspectives are rooted in multiple factors, including operational practices, tenant agreements, and data availability.
- Leading data center managers – those earning high overall GRESB benchmark scores – prioritize renewable energy efficiency, renewable energy procurement and a range of sustainability features, including fuel cells and water recycling.
All signs point toward continued data center growth in 2025, with investors asking for credible, comparable information about sustainability performance of these important, high-impact assets.
Geographic distribution of data center participants in the 2024 GRESB Real Estate and Infrastructure assessments
| Real Estate Assets (Facilities) | Infrastructure Assets (Portfolio Companies) | |
| Americas | 428 | 81 |
| Europe | 168 | 46 |
| Asia | 47 | 34 |
| Africa | 13 | 0 |
| Oceania | 10 | 15 |
