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BUSINESS NEWS WARE MALCOMB ANNOUNCES CONSTRUCTION IS COMPLETE ON EDGED CHICAGO DATA CENTER CAMPUS IN AURORA, IL Ware Malcomb, an award-winning international design firm, announced that construction is complete on the initial phase of a new Edged data center and office space project located west of Chicago in Aurora, Illinois. Ware Malcomb provided architecture and interior design services for the new 210,000 square foot building, situated on a 65-acre campus site that will ultimately feature 96MW of capacity powered by renewable energy. Edged, the fast-growing sustainable infrastructure provider, celebrated a major milestone yesterday with the
grand opening of its new ultra-efficient data center in Aurora, Illinois, The Edged campus project is developed by Seefried Industrial Properties, a privately owned, nationally recognized leader in industrial real estate, with more than four decades of development, leasing and management experience in core markets throughout the U.S. “The Edged data center project showcases a forward-thinking approach to technology, innovation, and environmental stewardship,” said Jason Golub, regional director, Ware Malcomb. “Our team worked closely with client, contractor, and consultants to refine the client’s initial prototype drawing, resulting in a code-compliant, permit-ready
design that remained sensitive to the local jurisdiction’s aesthetic preferences.” The Edged Chicago campus was designed to be a model for modern engineering and sustainable infrastructure initiatives and uses significantly less energy than traditional data centers. Among the campus features are an innovative waterless cooling technology that ensures operational efficiency while setting a new industry standard for Power Usage Effectiveness with an average PUE of 1.15 portfolio wide. Other sustainable site highlights will include on-site solar generation, EV charge points, and alternative fuel- powered backup generators.
focus first and foremost on “doing,” and then worry about “saying” what they are doing. Remember when every company was “going green”? Within what seemed like days, every company in the world was waving a flag about their “sustainability” policies. Now, with several years in the rearview mirror, it is easy to distinguish between the entities for which “sustainability” was/is a core value and the ones that merely use(d) the term as the keyword flavor of the month. Are they only saying they are committed or have they effectively embedded sustainable practices into the business? Are their designs and constructions developed and implemented to minimize environmental impacts? Do they have an established process to use renewable sources and reduce waste? Adding a statement on a website and using “green” keywords on social media is easy, the other part – not so much. And what about what seems to be one of marketers’ favorite terms: “Account-based marketing (ABM)”? Maybe it makes folks feel sophisticated when presenting to non-marketing leaders in their companies. Who am I to judge? I have been in the industry long enough to remember when ABM was “the thing.” Chatter in marketing professional associations made it seem like the final frontier – a revelation both revolutionary and game-changing. In reality, ABM is essentially just a strategy to focus resources on target accounts and define personalized communications. Wait. That sounds like a strategy which has been used since – forever? I know I am oversimplifying, but the point is that our marketing community falters by giving more weight to the “trend” than to discussing if and when we deploy strategies which are not customized to high-value target clients. Call it AMB, IBM, or MTV, it does not really matter. Here’s another one of my favorites: content marketing. This concept is defined by the Content Marketing Institute (you read that right, there is a Content Marketing Institute) as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.” Wait, that sounds dangerously
close to ABM. To be clear, I am not disparaging the Institute as they curate meaningful and valuable resources, training programs, and events. They are focused on driving marketers to understand the value of purposeful and intentional strategies. Their “work” is valuable – more so than their name. We could call it the “Best Practices Institute” or the “Don’t Create and Distribute Generic Stuff Institute,” DCADGSI for short. And talking about the DCADGSI, let’s circle back to DEI. If we examine a pool of companies’ websites, the language used to describe their DEI initiatives are interchangeable. This is a red flag that could indicate a superficial take on the topic rather than actionable business processes. The dangerously addictive nature of labels pushed companies to jump on a trendy bandwagon and prioritized delivering canned messages over auditing, assessing, and (re)defining systems, protocols, and methods to improve their business practices. Author, speaker, and DEI consultant Lily Zheng said, “While backlash to DEI has challenged how many companies and practitioners approach creating more equitable workplaces, fewer have considered whether DEI work itself has room to improve.” Yes! Calling something DEI is far less consequential than managing a company which embodies fairness and inclusivity. So, why don’t we forget about labels, buzzwords, and trends and instead work honestly to assess, improve, and measure our actions and initiatives? Let’s truly drive our companies to operate sustainably. Let’s develop and launch focused, targeted, and intentional marketing strategies. Let’s live and breathe workplaces with inclusive and fair processes which truly make a difference. Oh, and should we create the DCADGSI? Who’s in? Javier Suarez is a principal corporate marketing manager with Geosyntec Consultants. Contact him at jsuarez@geosyntec. com.
THE ZWEIG LETTER APRIL 21, 2025, ISSUE 1582
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