 This is JSA TV the newsroom for data center and telecom professionals I'm Dean Perine from JSA and I'm coming to you live from Fort Lauderdale, Florida at Metro Connect 2023 and I'm here with my longtime friend Mr. Michael Rourke Michael is the CEO and founder of I am critical and I am data centers Michael thank you very much for joining me in this impromptu discussion. So yes thank you and it's an impromptu discussion because we are going to we are going to talk about one thing one very important thing and that is ESG sustainability. What I would like because Michael is a author one of the authors of our greener data book and happens to be here on site with me. So we're taking the time and advantage of having you on site to discuss what ESG means to you what sustainability means to you and ultimately where the industry is going in this regard so Michael the floor is yours. Well I think it's a place the world has to go. We're back into a corner and so data centers you know we traded IT infrastructure so we have one segment of the company that owns and operates data centers, both traditionally built data centers that we've acquired and we're refreshing and modular data center campuses for which we build our own modular facilities so I am data the other business segment is we're actually manufacturing the structures of modular data centers. Why modular after 25 years of you know building owning and operating and engineering and designing data centers. We figured out a better way to sort of reinvent the entire process there by making them more sustainable and you know and and better suited to ESG initiatives. So the what we do is that we took a hard look at it when we set up this company. We set up the company so that there's an automatic carve out of 5% of corporate profits that will go specifically to ESG initiatives. Yeah and and which may include VC funding for novel technologies that are addressing squarely the you know reduction of carbon footprint and and then across all of our processes and products. We we try to do things in an ESG friendly sustainable manner in a measurable manner so where there's there's real metrics and how many you know how much carbon reduction we're actually achieving. Yeah there's a lot of things related to our ASG initiatives that are difficult to metric. If they weren't difficult it probably weren't worth doing right. Well yeah I mean and also just I mean you know when you're building a modular facility the the site work consists of the the underground work and pouring the slabs essentially you know bringing in the fiber bringing in the power. But the actual modular modular construction process is is done in a very short period of time. For example we're about to deploy 10 modules at 6000 square feet 3 megawatts in Pittsburgh where we own six acres and the entire process of setting data centers data center modules and commissioning the entire data center will be about a month. So one metric is as you've you've reduced and it's right up next to a residential neighborhood on one side so you're reducing noise pollution. You know we we we go to an extreme you know cutting invasive species down and then turning it into mulch to promote erosion control and it's all these little things that add up. But I think the main thing is is that we're making these data centers Uber energy efficient. Yeah and we're reducing the amount of energy it takes to to to achieve the same workloads and thereby reducing power consumption. There's a very direct impact on carbon footprint. Yeah I love it so I am you're doing this this is real this isn't lip service these are things that you are doing right now. I think you and I both know that it's a very busy it's a very in vogue thing to be to be to have a sustainable sustainability initiative. In your mind though what is it going to take for this industry to to turn a real corner with regard to sustainability and renewable energy. We're in Fort Lauderdale and 20 minutes away we have a factory it's about 65,000 square feet. And we're building these things by building them I mean we're cutting bulk steel we're welding we're doing the entire assembly of every system that's required for a high tier data center. And we're able to do this less expensively than it is to build a traditional bricks and mortar data center which is remarkable. So these these buildings we're producing have remarkably low pu ease. They're great envelopes great our factors and they're sustainable from more sustainable than bricks and mortar facilities from almost every angle and they're less expensive. So I don't think that it I don't think that being ESG sensitive it requires a conscience but I don't think it requires necessarily spending more. And I just think it's there's you know and there's all of these companies are tremendously interesting most companies I have some genuine interest I would say and rather than just greenwashing. You know and greenwashing interesting yet and giving a nod to ESG and sustainability to really just doing something about it. Yeah, you know and I think that's amazing organizations like high masons and the infrastructure in the IT infrastructure side and the membership there. Wow I mean it's very impressive these big companies rather than just greenwashing they're trying to really do something to move the footprint on carbon footprint. Yeah and sustainability. Yeah and that's that's why you're here frankly I mean I wanted to make I wanted to kind of give our our viewers a little glimpse into somebody who is quite literally putting that you know sustainable rubber on the road. So thank you very much for your time we appreciate it you bet you think and thank you viewers for watching JSA TV we'll see you soon.