LEED Silver-Certified Data Center
Our computing "hub" is an 87,000-square-foot building with LEED Silver certification that's home to 80 employees as well as numerous high-efficiency computer systems, which securely manage our company's member information, health claim data and more.
Near Hershey, Pa., it is green from the ground up. It was built on a "sustainable" site — a location where the construction process had minimal impact on the landscape.
Eco-friendly construction techniques and features
As with other renovations, building materials were reused and recycled during the Data Center's construction, which helped to reduce landfill waste from the project by 67 percent.
The building itself contains a portion of recycled materials as well as local materials that were manufactured or extracted within a 500-mile radius of the site.
Our Data Center's notable environmentally friendly features include:
- A 100,000-gallon water tank built underneath the facility that collects rainwater from the roof and uses it to cool the building, which evaporates about 9,000 gallons of water per day
- Landscaping with hardy native plants that absorb rainwater run-off from the building's roof, driveway and walkways instead of allowing it to flow into storm drains
- State-of-the-art, energy-conserving technologies — including server virtualization and next-generation air- and equipment-cooling processes
- Natural light brightens nearly all employee work areas in our Data Center, creating a pleasant environment while also saving electricity
Although the center, which was built in 2005, is three times larger than its predecessor, our electricity costs in the new larger building have remained approximately the same. In July 2012, it achieved ENERGY STAR certification, signifying that the facility is in the top 25 percent of energy efficient buildings among similar buildings nationwide. The data center continues to earn its ENERGY STAR certification on an annual basis.
