AirTrunk has announced the successful close of a landmark green loan in Japan as part of its new Green Financing Framework.
The green loan will finance AirTrunk’s recently announced 110MW West Tokyo data centre, AirTrunk TOK2, and will be the first green loan for a data centre in Japan.
AirTrunk Chief Financial Officer, Prashant Murthy says: “We continue to drive sustainable innovation throughout the design, build, operations and financing of our data centres. The green loan closed today has set several industry benchmarks including being a first for a data centre in Japan, and the first to use eligibility criteria based on operating PUE and water productivity.”
The framework complements AirTrunk’s Sustainability Linked Loan (SLL), which was announced in late 2021. The $2.1b loan was the largest in global data centre history and first in the region, subsequently increasing in size to support AirTrunk’s APJ expansion to address recent customer demand.
Prashant continues: “AirTrunk’s financing platform, including the new Green Financing Framework and SLL, takes AirTrunk to a clear leadership position in sustainable data centre financing. Linking our debt facilities to sustainability performance holds our business to account on our commitments.”
Under the framework, AirTrunk’s green projects must meet certain eligibility criteria which have a positive impact on the environment, in order to be financed through green loans. The company has defined three categories as ‘green loan’ eligible – Green Data Centre, Renewable Energy and Water Efficiency.
“The categories we selected as eligibility criteria for the framework are key priorities for AirTrunk and its customers to ensure we continue to deliver the most sustainable digital infrastructure in the region,” he says.
The Framework ensures that AirTrunk’s green loans are aligned to the four Loan Market Association Green Loan Principles (GLP) being the use of proceeds, the process for project evaluation and selection, management of proceeds and reporting. It also aligns to six of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
