ECCHO™ recognizes data centers that demonstrate exceptional environmental stewardship through intelligent design, efficient operation, and responsible use of energy and natural resources.
The growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence is creating extraordinary demand for digital infrastructure. ECCHO™ was created around a simple principle: the infrastructure powering the future can also be designed with exceptional care for the environment.
The ECCHO™ Award for Environmental Excellence recognizes projects that meaningfully reduce their environmental footprint while advancing the reliability, performance, and innovation expected of modern data centers.
Recognition is based on the environmental performance of the project as a whole—not on a single technology, certification, or metric.
ECCHO™ evaluates the factors that most directly determine a facility’s environmental footprint and its relationship with the surrounding community and electrical grid. These facilities are not "data centers." They are ECCHOs™.
Power usage effectiveness, efficient computing architecture, cooling performance, and reduction of avoidable energy losses.
Renewable and zero-carbon generation, thoughtful power procurement, storage, and credible reductions in operational emissions.
Low- or zero-water cooling, recycled water, closed-loop systems, and responsible water use in water-constrained regions.
Productive reuse of waste heat and other approaches that recover energy that would otherwise be discarded.
Demand management, resilient power strategies, storage, flexible loads, and practices that reduce stress on the electrical system.
Noise-pollution prevention and mitigation, thoughtful siting and visual design, land stewardship, and measures that minimize impacts on neighboring communities.
The best computing hub is not simply the one that uses the least power. It is the one designed to deliver extraordinary computing capacity with the lightest practical footprint on its environment.
Recognized for exceptional leadership in data-center efficiency, advanced cooling, water conservation, and productive reuse of computing heat—demonstrating what thoughtful engineering can achieve at the frontier of high-performance computing.
ECCHO™ welcomes information concerning exceptional projects and environmental innovations in digital infrastructure.
Contact ECCHO™