Equinix Together

As one of the world’s leading digital infrastructure companies, we understand the distinct role we play in the communities where we operate. Our approach moves beyond negative impact management to focus on creating lasting, shared value for both the communities we serve today and those we become part of. Because every community is different, our approach is intentionally tailored rather than one-size-fits-all. Early in the planning process for new facilities, we engage with community stakeholders, such as local utilities and government leaders, to listen and understand local priorities and concerns and help inform our decisions.

The actions described under each principle reflect our track record and planned commitments across our global portfolio—tailored to local context, community needs and site-specific opportunities. Not every action applies in every location, but together, they provide examples and demonstrate how we aim to create shared value for the diverse communities where we operate.

We strengthen communities by investing in public transport and infrastructure that supports sustainability, connection and resilience.

• Support local transportation planning by building connecting bike paths and enhancing sidewalks and roadways around our sites, in partnership with local governments.
• Advance community energy resilience through infrastructure investments that improve grid reliability and emergency preparedness.
• Partner with local businesses and suppliers, prioritizing local procurement where feasible to keep economic value within the community.
• Support small businesses, veteran-owned enterprises and companies in historically underutilized business zones through inclusive procurement practices. In 2025, we spent over US$95 million with certified and qualified businesses through these efforts.
• Develop community spaces and amenities that enhance neighborhood vitality.
• Contribute taxes that support essential public services and shared community assets, including schools, emergency services and libraries.
• Work with local utilities to assess infrastructure needs for power and water delivery and directly fund infrastructure upgrades required for our sites, which prevents the cost from falling on local residents and businesses.

Our direct infrastructure investments often deliver long-term community benefits that extend well beyond our sites. For example, at our campus in Minooka, Illinois, we funded a public bike path along our site and are donating land for a future fire station. Our facilities are designed to strengthen the communities they are part of, not to simply occupy space within them.

We commit to helping communities by investing in energy infrastructure that aims to benefit all and ensure our own power demands don’t increase residential ratepayers’ energy burdens.

• Pay our full share of grid infrastructure and energy supply costs and commit to long-term contracts with utilities to eliminate the risk of shifting costs to other customers. Long-term, financially binding agreements create planning and revenue certainty for utilities that enable downward pressure on rates.
• Partner with local utilities and grid operators to fund new transmission and generation capacity needed to support our growth and improve regional grid reliability and affordability.
• Execute power purchase agreements (PPAs) that add clean and renewable energy to grids. Globally, we match 96% of electricity use at our International Business ExchangeTM (IBX®) data centers with clean and renewable energy purchases and have maintained 100% renewable energy coverage in the U.S. since 2018.
• Invest in innovative power technology solutions like fuel cells and advanced nuclear power.
• Advocate for policies to expand access to technologies that improve grid reliability and resilience, such as battery storage deployment, virtual power plants and grid-enhancing technologies.
• Achieve power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.33 or better by 2030 to minimize energy consumption. We invest heavily in data center energy efficiency and publish our performance using industry-standard metrics. We design to improve on industry-leading energy efficiency targets, such as those set by the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact (CNDCP).

Equinix has been building and operating data centers for nearly three decades and is here for the long term. Our approach is to build deep partnerships with utilities that deliver long-term sustainable growth for us and a reliable, affordable, ever-cleaner power system for our surrounding communities. We work closely with utilities to develop power solutions optimized for the needs of the whole community, including enhancements to the transmission system and new generation capacity. Where possible, we also invest in on-site power solutions like fuel cells that enhance reliability and resilience.
Examples of this partnership approach in action:

• A 10-year take-or-pay transmission services agreement with ComEd in Northern Illinois, which the utility described as a model for ensuring that customers imposing very large demands on the grid pay their fair share of associated infrastructure costs.
• A collaboration with PG&E and the City of San Jose to deliver world-class power infrastructure to support the expansion of the Equinix SV12x Silicon Valley xScale® facility. PG&E has stated that large energy users like Equinix have helped lower electric rates for all customers by taking on a bigger share of grid costs, estimating that every gigawatt of newly connected data center demand can reduce customer bills by 1% or more.
• As of the end of 2025, Equinix has 73MW of active on-site fuel cell deployments, providing resilient clean power to sites around the world, collectively avoiding 443,000 MTCO2e of Scope 2 emissions (equivalent to annual emissions from approximately 96,000 cars) and 444 billion gallons of embedded water (enough to fill approximately 670,000 Olympic pools).

We create quality jobs today and build educational pathways for tomorrow’s workforce.

• Provide career opportunities with competitive wages and benefits, including priority hiring pathways for veterans.
• Educate the next generation about careers in the data center industry through our Pathways to Tech program. In 2025, we hosted more than 60 data center tours and education sessions to engage over 1,800 students across 32 locations globally. We are expanding this programming worldwide through enhanced partnerships with technical training providers and deeper investments in career readiness initiatives that prepare diverse talent pipelines for the digital infrastructure industry.
• Build long-term school partnerships, creating sustained mentorship and career awareness programs—starting with Ashburn, Virginia, and Dallas, Texas.
• Partner with local nonprofits, workforce organizations and community colleges to expand technical training and certification pathways that prepare local talent for data center operations roles.
• Invest in internships, apprenticeships and certification programs that build long-term employability.

Equinix’s physical infrastructure model enables us to offer hands-on pathways into digital infrastructure careers. Our partnerships with schools, educational nonprofits and workforce organizations build early awareness and help expand technical training opportunities rooted in the needs of local labor markets.

The Pathways to Tech program gives students ages 14-18 physical access to operational data centers. Our adjacent-industry pathway from construction, aviation and facilities management into data center operations creates opportunities for diverse talent pools. Our explicit commitment to veteran hiring adds a further dimension. Together, these create a skills-investment story tied to place, to trades and to long-term local employment.

We manage shared natural resources responsibly—by working to prioritize efficiency, transparency and environmental care.

• Serve as responsible stewards of water and refrain from using water for cooling in water-stressed areas at new sites. We evaluate the water context of every new location to understand local water challenges and opportunities, including if the area is facing water stress and if there are opportunities to use reclaimed water. This work informs our projects if a responsible water source is available or not, which then informs the type of cooling used.
• When possible, we avoid water-based (evaporative) cooling in areas designated as water-stressed, selecting water-less (air-based) cooling systems where necessary.
• We will explore water reclamation to put back the water that we draw, where viable, for new sites.
• Publish our global water usage data and performance metrics annually to provide transparency to our stakeholders.

• Embed biodiversity directly into data center design through our six key landscaping strategies, dedicating a meaningful portion of every new site to support local biodiversity; prioritizing native, low-maintenance ecological solutions that minimize water, chemical, operational and carbon impacts; avoiding and removing invasive species; and integrating biodiversity with stormwater and site-planning strategies without permanent irrigation where possible.
• Maintain and enhance local biodiversity throughout the life of development—from land acquisition and construction to operations—with the intent to preserve the existing biodiversity of native greenfield sites by replacing anything displaced or removed during development elsewhere on the site.
• Appoint ecologists to inform our landscaping and on-site ecology solutions, ensuring scientifically grounded approaches to biodiversity protection.

• Achieve LEED certification at all new developments, with a path to Gold certification.
• Implement noise mitigation measures to minimize acoustic disturbance of surrounding communities, adhering to or going beyond local noise ordinances.
• Monitor and manage air quality impacts from our operations and construction activities, including implementing dust mitigation strategies during construction phases.

With the same rigor applied in our approach to holding ourselves accountable, we ensure we are a good long-term neighbor to our communities. From building in urban neighborhoods to rural communities, Equinix operates across a wide range of settings—and our experience of proactively addressing design, noise, air quality and other concerns is woven into our design innovations and standards.

We work to close the digital divide by expanding not only access to connectivity and technology, but also the skills and career pathways required to translate that access into real economic opportunity.

• Support community-led digital inclusion efforts, from connectivity and skills training to career pathways and job placement, ensuring residents can access and act on opportunities in education and careers development.
• Partner with local nonprofits through Equinix Foundation grant funding across three dimensions: Connectivity and Digital Infrastructure, Digital Skills and Literacy, and Workforce Readiness and Resilience, while increasingly prioritizing programs that connect individuals to clear, actionable pathways for advancement. In 2025, the Foundation funded 60 nonprofit grant partners operating in our communities with a total of US$2 million.
• Enable employees to help advance digital inclusion locally through our WeGive program. In 2025, 28 WeAreEquinix teams supported 31 nonprofit organizations bridging the digital divide locally where we operate, distributing US$280,000 in community-based grants.
• Engage employees in volunteering and community service. In 2025, more than 4,600 employees contributed over 54,000 service hours to hundreds of impact initiatives, raising nearly US$3.1M.
• Amplify employee generosity through our Matching Gifts Program (increased to US$2,500 per employee in 2025) and Dollars for Doers program, which convert volunteer hours into charitable giving that’s put back into the community.
• Apply employee professional expertise through skills-based volunteering, helping nonprofits scale solutions that address the full spectrum of the digital divide, from access to opportunity.

As digital access becomes essential for economic mobility, we support efforts that help expand digital participation so that more residents can benefit from the economic growth our presence helps generate. Our investments help create the conditions for digital participation, which is increasingly essential for economic opportunity.

Our community investment model is distinctive in several ways. WeGive is fully employee-led and locally directed—our teams in each location choose the organizations they support, rather than receiving top-down giving mandates. This produces community investment that reflects actual local priorities, not a centralized corporate agenda.

The Equinix Foundation’s mission—expanding equitable access to digital technology and skills training—connects directly to what Equinix does as a business. We are the infrastructure that makes the internet possible; the Foundation works to ensure more people can access and benefit from it. Our multilocation footprint also means this investment is distributed across many communities, not concentrated in one or two large campus towns.

• Preparing high school students for IT and data center careers through hands-on technical training with the Loudoun County ACCESS Academy partnership.
• Supporting young people in Chicago to jump-start their careers in tech through the i.c.stars program that provides mentorship, training and career pathways.
• Empowering the next generation of women in STEM through Girls, Inc. of Metro Denver’s targeted programs to address gender gaps in technology fields.
• Fueling STEM success in South Florida through the WeGive partnership with USF MESA, supporting underrepresented students in engineering and science.

In 2025, an estimated 2.2 billion people remained unconnected to the internet, with those offline disproportionately coming from economically marginalized communities. The Equinix Foundation’s grantmaking is focused squarely on this gap, to connect the unconnected and ensure everyone, everywhere has equitable access to the technology, skills, and job opportunities made possible by the digital economy.