The Freeport, Maine-based company made sure its new 18,000 square-foot data center had plenty of natural light and views of trees. It wanted something comfortable, conducive to work and environmentally sensitive. Natural light accomplishes all that.

"You don't mind being cooped up in a three-hour planning meeting; when your mind wanders you can look outside and see the clouds flow by," said Rocko Graziano, who managers the retailer's infrastructure operations and services.

The sunlight doesn't touch the IBM mainframe and other servers running L.L. Bean's business, but natural light does fill the operations room where the systems are managed. It is an approach encouraged, in part, by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard.

L.L. Bean's data center was built , as was a recently opened data center by Emerson Electric Co. in St. Louis. It also makes use of natural light to reduce power use.

Emerson went a step further by on the data center roof. It's capable of generating 100 kilowatts of power to supplement building power usage.