Fast Company honors Johnson Controls for innovative data center cooling

As demand for computing power grows, data center operators are under pressure to add capacity while placing fewer demands on water, energy, space and noise. Meeting those needs requires a different approach to thermal management.

Fast Company recently recognized two Johnson Controls innovations designed for this challenge, naming the company a 2026 Innovation by Design honoree for the YORK YK-HT Two-Stage Economized Centrifugal Chiller and the YORK YDAM Air-Cooled Magnetic-Bearing Centrifugal Chiller. The award celebrates product designs that address real-world challenges through functionality, thoughtful design and impact.

YORK YDAM Air-Cooled Magnetic-Bearing Centrifugal Chiller

As data centers run more powerful computing equipment, operators often need more cooling without expanding their facilities. The YORK YDAM helps deliver more cooling from the same footprint, allowing operators to increase capacity while reducing the amount of equipment required on-site.

Delivering up to 20% greater cooling density in a compact footprint, the YDAM can reduce the number of chillers required on-site, lowering equipment count and site complexity. The air-cooled, zero-water system helps remove water availability as a constraint on growth while maintaining performance in demanding environments. The system also simplifies deployment by shipping on a single standard 53-foot flatbed and can return to full load in as little as three minutes following a power event.

YORK YK-HT Two-Stage Economized Centrifugal Chiller

The YORK YK-HT helps data center operators achieve zero onsite water consumption, recover and reuse heat, and create more efficient facility designs.

The innovative technology is designed to reduce the number of dry coolers required by up to 60%, helping simplify infrastructure requirements. Alternatively, operators can retain the same number of dry coolers and reduce fan speeds, lowering on-site noise by as much as 20 dBA, a reduction often perceived as roughly 75% quieter, about the noise level of a normal conversation. Designed to eliminate onsite water use, equipment requirements and noise, the YK-HT can also cut equipment footprint by up to 30% compared with conventional alternatives, simplifying retrofits and reducing mechanical-room requirements. In certain applications, it can recover and reuse heat that would otherwise be wasted, offsetting more than 31 MMBtu per hour of heating demand, equivalent to approximately 350 single-family homes.

Rethinking the Growth Equation

For years, adding data center capacity often meant installing more equipment and placing greater demands on water, energy and surrounding infrastructure. The product designs recognized by Fast Company show how thermal management innovation can help change that equation.