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For those of us who have been working in the data center industry for a while, it’s always felt like we’re building as fast as we can. Everyone who has worked on a data center construction site knows that urgency in morning meetings. Yet despite the directive to build fast, there are obstacles in the way. Those who are planning new sites have long been limited by the availability of land, equipment, and labor. In the past two years, our industry has somehow found a new gear. Driven in part by the advent of generative AI, we have now entered a period of “hyper-growth,” with no end in sight. When we historically have been racing the 400 at a record pace, now we have to tackle a 100-meter sprint. This new dynamic is threatening one of the other hallmarks of our industry along with speed: sustainability. Data center operators, led by the so-called internet giants, have led the private sector in sustainability action and investment. Now, as we bring new facilities online at an unprecedented pace, environmental impact is adding up.
This balancing act of speed and sustainability leaves data center operators in the challenging position of maintaining (or even increasing) the pace of growth, while drawing down the rate of environmental impact – GHG emissions in particular. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with one of the leaders in our industry who is charting the path between these two pressures, discovering that they are not always at odds. Sarah Martinez is the Vice President of ESG at Prime Data Centers, and she and I discussed both the challenges and sustainability opportunities facing our industry as part of an “Innovation Talk” with DCD. Below are some insights from our conversation.
Growing global demand for data centers
For decades, forecasting electrical loads in the United States has been mundane work. While the economy grew, overall demand stayed flat thanks to improving efficiency. Over the last two years, a new picture has come into focus, and forecasts are now showing spikes in demand not just in the US, but around the world. This uptick has driven data centers into mainstream media in a way they have never been before. There has been a constant drumbeat of articles all year about how data centers are contributing to a growing scarcity of grid capacity (along with a burgeoning domestic industrial boom and the climate driven project to “electrify everything”). The communities in which we operate are naturally asking questions about how we intend to power new facilities, and whether we can do so sustainably.
Becoming a good neighbor in the community
Sarah described how, in the face of growing public scrutiny, we as an industry need to be honest with our stakeholders about the environmental impacts of our operations. We must communicate proactively about the innovations and investments we are making to operate sustainably, including the significant renewable energy capacity boosting the grids in which we operate.
It’s also important for us to take a broad view of sustainability and communicate to our neighbors not just about clean power but also about other areas of high potential impact, such as water use. For instance, Prime data centers use only closed loop cooling systems, which can reuse water almost indefinitely, instead of consuming significant volumes of water continuously through evaporative cooling.
Beyond simply reporting out on our many sustainability efforts, Sarah argued that true community engagement must start with listening:
“Prime recently published our inaugural sustainability report,” Sarah explained. “One of the commitments was to earmark budget in every project to support community needs, as identified by the community. It’s important we don’t come in and dictate what we think the community needs; the community knows what is needs. So, we’re building a process to ask community what they want. That could be including walking trails on our properties. It could include supporting public art. In one of our developments, the community wants us to support a summer concert series to give the people in the community an opportunity to come together.”
Creating local workforce opportunities
As these examples demonstrate, the definitions of sustainability and what it means to be a good neighbor often extend beyond environmental impacts. Local communities also want to know that we are investing in meaningful ways to their economic and social wellbeing. Even as power availability has climbed the list of constraints facing our industry, a shortage of skilled workforce continues to be a headwind. Prime and others in our industry are creating curriculum development programs for students to expose them to our industry and provide career development opportunities. This commitment to the local workforce and, by extension, the local economy, simultaneously demonstrates a commitment to the communities in which we operate and helps to build the pipeline of skilled labor we need.
Making faster strides through partnerships
Prime Data Centers and Schneider Electric are demonstrating many of these principles in the work we’re doing together. For example, Prime partnered with Schneider to conduct a Renewable Energy Opportunity Assessment to map out possible renewable targets and various paths to achieve them, including a study to determine the availability of financially attractive renewables projects in target markets.
Finally, it’s important that when we can, we speak with one voice as an industry to all our various stakeholders. Prime and Schneider are collaborating on sustainability industry initiatives as members of the iMasons Climate Accord, the Open Compute Project, and other organizations. Through these efforts, we can show our customers, neighbors, and the public at large that as we grow, we are working aggressively to ensure our growth is sustainable, and that we’re investing in environmental and social good wherever we operate.
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