MediTerra has been an environmental advisor to the multinational company Interxion (now Digital Realty) in the purchase of land for the development of a data centre in Barcelona. The future data centre will be located on a 7,500 m2 plot and will have a capacity of 15 MW.
There was chemical industrial activity on the plot until 2019 that had contaminated the soil and groundwater. Decontamination activities were carried out by the former industrial activity.
In 2021 MediTerra conducted an environmental due diligence audit where all historical research and decontamination activities were assessed and how they could affect the future data centre project. Subsequently, further investigations were carried out in order to rule out any new areas of concern.
The client commissioned MediTerra to carry out the necessary activities to make the soil and water quality compatible with the new activity. An agreement was reached between the chemical company, the land owner Interxion and the authorities that Interxion would take over the responsibility for the decontamination after negotiation between all parties.
MediTerra produced a soil decontamination plan that took into account the future construction project and was adapted to make it compatible with the lowest decontamination cost.
MediTerra obtained the authorities' approval of the decontamination plan in time to obtain the relevant licences.
After completion of the decontamination project, the decontamination report was submitted to the Catalan Waste Agency, which assessed and approved the report before the start of the construction phase, closing the file without any control and monitoring requirements.
Subsequently, MediTerra carried out the environmental supervision of the installation of all the data conduits between the data centre and the data distribution centre over a stretch of about 10 km.
Challenge: To carry out investigations and a decontamination plan in parallel with the development of the construction project, which was modified several times during the environmental project phase, and to obtain the approval of the authorities without delaying the construction phase.
MediTerra's solution: The decontamination project was adapted and combined with the construction design phase, and was modified on the basis of the preliminary construction phases, in continuous contact with the environmental authorities. Approval of the actions by the environmental authorities was obtained and the dossier was closed.
Benefits for the client: The client assumed the responsibilities for the decontamination after a financial negotiation with the vendor and MediTerra directly managed the decontamination phase. The adaptation of the decontamination project to the construction phase is estimated to have had a saving of approximately 1 million euros in the management of affected soil.
About the client: Interxion (Digita Realty) is a leader in data centre management with more than 300 data centres in 25 countries and 50 cities.