Malaysia’s first hyperscale data centre earns GreenRE Platinum rating

KUALA LUMPUR (March 11): Malaysia has reached a milestone in sustainable digital infrastructure with the country’s first hyperscale data centre receiving provisional GreenRE Platinum certification for water, energy and sustainability design.

According to a press release on Wednesday, the artificial intelligence-capable hyperscale facility by ZDATA Group Co Ltd in Gelang Patah, Johor sets a new benchmark for environmentally responsible digital infrastructure in the country.

The Platinum rating is the highest sustainability certification under the GreenRE scheme established by the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda). The ZDATA facility is currently the only data centre in Malaysia to obtain this certification.

The development previously received the Malaysia Green Data Centre Recycled Water Certification in August 2025 in recognition of its use of reclaimed water in large-scale digital infrastructure operations.

Engineered to Tier 3+ standards, the facility forms part of an RM8 billion development on a 38-acre site in Johor. About 18 acres of the site have been developed so far, covering phases one and two of the project.

Phase one of the facility has been completed and is scheduled to commence operations in March 2026. Construction of phase two is currently underway, with operations expected to begin in the second quarter of 2026. The remaining phases of the development are scheduled for completion by the end of 2027.

One of the key sustainability features of the facility is its design to operate using 100% reclaimed water treated through two dedicated water treatment plants located near the data centre. The reclaimed water system allows cooling operations to run without using domestic potable water, reducing pressure on local freshwater resources.

Beyond water sustainability, the data centre has been designed to achieve high energy efficiency standards and is expected to be largely powered by renewable energy.

The company recently signed a memorandum of understanding for a long-term green energy supply programme involving solar farm assets to support the facility’s power needs. The programme, scheduled to begin in 2028, is projected to supply about 630,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy annually.

Energy efficiency features of the facility include closed-loop cooling technologies, high-efficiency uninterruptible power supply systems and optimised power distribution architecture designed to support low Power Usage Effectiveness. The infrastructure is engineered to minimise overhead energy consumption while maintaining operational efficiency across varying IT workloads.

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