Involta: On a mission to transform the world through technology

Ken Kremer, chief technical officer at Involta, points out that the company’s inaugural Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report reflects its commitment to set an example for the IT industry. It also emphasizes Involta’s focus on the three pillars of its ESG strategy: environmental sustainability, employee well-being, and strong governance practices.

“When Involta was founded in 2007, sustainability wasn’t a top-of-mind issue for the industry, but our founders understood its importance and continually made everyday improvements that promoted energy efficiency and reduced our carbon emissions,” says Kremer. “Now we have the tools, strategies, and language needed to track and report on our environmental performance and ensure that our approach to ESG is marked by the same attention to detail our customers associate with our IT solutions and services.”

Based in Tucson, Arizona, and with more than 240 employees, Involta operates 12 high-performance data centers in Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The company’s compute, networking, and storage offerings encompass a wide range of managed IT services and draw on its 12,000-mile fiber network.

“Leaders in the financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and technology sectors know Involta for the technical strength of our solutions, our exceptional service guarantees, and the personal service and concierge-level care we provide,” adds Kremer. “We work to ensure that our core values, which we refer to as DRIVE – dedicated, results, integrity, visionary and experience – permeate everything we do, whether it’s providing a security operations center, delivering managed services – including Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Storage-as-a-Service, Backup-as-a-Service, and Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service – or designing the applications and infrastructure they need to meet their business objectives. Increasingly, we are also finding that these same customers are working towards sustainability goals of their own.”

Kremer notes that Involta is proud to support that important work by driving change and innovation in the technology sector. One example includes the use of closed-loop, water-free, and refrigerant-based cooling systems in all of the company’s data centers.  Another is a new state-of-the-art approach to ventilation.

“Through our partnership with DuctSox, we helped develop the industry’s first customizable air displacement ventilation dispersion system,” he says. “Not only do we not use the water that many data centers rely on, but we are also radically decreasing how much power is required to ventilate our facilities.”

This includes Involta’s Northpoint data center in Pennsylvania – a 40,000 square foot certified tier III facility that uses half as much power as the company’s first data center that went into operation in 2008. With a power usage effectiveness of 1.3, it is among the top five percent of the most efficient multi-tenant data centers nationwide. And with multiple uninterruptible power supply and diesel-powered generator systems in place at each of Involta’s data centers, power availability is backed up by a 100% guarantee.

“Data centers today use nearly 1% of electricity and create .3% of CO2 emissions globally,” adds Kremer. “As enterprises continue their digital transformations, they require more high-performance computing capabilities and generate more data, both of which require more power. That’s why it is absolutely essential that data center providers work to achieve net zero goals and collectively strive to create a more efficient, and more sustainable future for all.”

That is why Kremer says Involta joined VMware’s Zero Carbon Committed initiative. It is also why he believes efforts to procure more renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions are crucial and should influence how companies choose their partners.

“We’ve worked with VMware as a Cloud Verified partner for many years, a relationship that has helped us reimagine and grow our cloud solutions to align with the evolving needs of modern businesses,” he says. “VMware’s cloud, networking and security, and digital workspace offerings provide a dynamic and efficient digital foundation to global customers and help empower entire industries to minimize their impact on the environment. Partnerships with others that share the same vision serve as a force multiplier in efforts to address climate change.”

Such efforts he notes are consistent with each of the three key pillars of Involta’s ESG strategy: environmental sustainability, employee well-being, and strong governance practices.

“Involta’s employees volunteer for projects like Clean Yer Creek, an annual cleanup in Duluth, and numerous other initiatives that address ESG issues like hunger, literacy, and housing,” says Kremer. “It’s important to be in tune with the communities we serve. Our vision to enable our customers to transform their worlds through technology has never been more paramount, or more closely tied to the sustainability movement. Technology and energy go hand in hand, and as technology advances, we become increasingly dependent on energy. Paying attention to our energy mix and prioritizing renewable energy is a strategy Involta has fully embraced, and we hope to see our peers follow suit.”

Learn more about Involta and its partnership with VMware here.