JLL becomes iMasons Climate Accord Founding Company and Advisory Council member

CHICAGO, Oct. 17, 2022 – JLL announced today that it has become an Infrastructure Masons (iMasons) Climate Accord (ICA) Founding Company and an iMasons Advisory Council member. The ICA represents an historic cooperative of companies that have joined together as an industry to address climate change and, together, are committed to reducing carbon in digital infrastructure materials, products and power.

The iMasons Climate Accord (ICA) was formed by leaders in the iMasons Advisory Council and includes companies that represent some of the largest digital infrastructure portfolios in the world and more than 150 colocation data center providers, product, service and investment firms that fund, build and operate these facilities and drive the supply chain.

“JLL at its heart is a sustainability company, and the ICA aligns with our corporate mission and what we do as a company for our clients around the world,” said Brian Kortendick, Executive Director, Work Dynamics, JLL. “We manage over 200 million square feet of mission-critical facilities and understand the importance of the first ever intracompany effort to standardize measuring and reporting to reduce carbon impacts and footprints to make the world a better place.”

One data center can consume more power than a city of 100,000 people. According to JLL’s recent Data Center Outlook, collectively, data centers account for approximately 2% of the total U.S. electricity use, and, at the end of 2021, global data center energy consumption reached 190.8 terawatt hours – 2.2 times more than the total of 2020. 

According to the iMasons, the ICA’s goal is to provide transparency, traceability and identification of the carbon history of data center products and buildings.

“Data Center operators have been leading the sustainability push for more than 10 years, employing bleeding-edge technology and process in pursuit of greater efficiency,” Sean Farney, Strategy and Innovation Lead and JLL representative on the advisory council. “However, our tech-infused culture's unquenchable need for always-on data has accelerated the deployment of new facilities, creating a sustainability imperative for operators. When iMasons decided to act and organize the industry around common sustainability goals, JLL was there in lockstep, and we are extremely proud to be part of the founding community of members.”

As the first real estate company in the world with a net-zero target validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, leading the way on sustainability is fundamental to JLL's purpose to shape the future of real estate for a better world and to its future long-term growth strategy. Each year, JLL publishes its Global Sustainability Report to share JLL’s progress to reduce carbon emissions across its own global operations, corporate supply chain and with clients and to rapidly decarbonize cities and ensure the world's real estate evolves and adapts in a sustainable way

“The iMasons Climate Accord is a vital step toward the data center industry making, measuring and meeting carbon reduction goals,” said Erin Meezan, Chief Sustainability Officer, JLL. “The commercial real estate industry is more focused than ever on reducing carbon emissions, and we can accelerate progress across the industry with important collaborative action like this initiative. The momentum around measuring the environmental impact of the buildings and spaces in which we live and work is growing.”

JLL is committed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040 by eliminating carbon emissions across all areas of operations. To do this, JLL has a transparent plan and set of pathways across all three Scopes to measure progress. The firm has also pledged that all JLL-occupied buildings will be carbon neutral by 2030, representing a significant milestone on its sustainability journey.

For more news, videos and research resources on JLL, please visit our newsroom.