3rd September 2025
Data Centres are Community Infrastructure, Let’s Treat Them Like It
Data centres are being built at unprecedented pace to keep up with demand for AI, cloud services and digital connectivity. In Singapore, their load reached around 7% of the country’s total, prompting a moratorium on new builds in 2019 until operators could prove they would not destabilise the grid. Yet despite their scale and influence, data centres are still too often treated as private utilities rather than community infrastructure.
The planning process often highlights this imbalance - sites are chosen with corporate efficiency and speed in mind, while community perspectives are considered late, if at all. The result is that the burdens - on electric grids, water systems, land use and labour markets - fall locally, while most of the benefits flow to distant shareholders and global platforms.
Part of the frustration comes from the mismatch between what is pledged and what is delivered. Job promises frequently shrink by the time facilities open, or they turn into highly specialised roles imported from elsewhere. Meanwhile, resources such as energy and water are managed as internal engineering problems rather than as shared assets that could provide resilience and prosperity to neighbours.
This gap between local impact and local benefit raises a deeper challenge: how can data centres shift from being seen as extractive utilities to becoming genuine shared infrastructure that delivers value for the communities around them?
Building Data Centres for the Four Equity Dimensions: Energy, Water, Climate and Community
Energy
For communities, energy equity is about whether the arrival of a data centre makes access to affordable, clean and reliable power better or worse. When large facilities plug directly into the grid, they can consume the equivalent of tens of thousands of households. In Ireland, data centres already draw 22% of national electricity demand, a share that could rise to 28% by 2031. Without safeguards, the cost of cheap power for global cloud platforms can be higher bills, reduced resilience and continued fossil fuel dependence for local residents.
Achieving energy equity means designing data centres in ways that expand and strengthen local energy systems rather than draining them. One approach is for developers to co-invest with municipalities or community energy groups in new solar, wind or storage projects that serve both the facility and local households. Major players are beginning to show what this looks like at scale: Amazon has contracted more than 15 GW of renewable capacity worldwide, making it the largest corporate purchaser of clean energy, and Google has pledged billions into solar, wind and battery infrastructure tied to its campuses.
Surplus energy can also be shared directly with neighbours. In Odense, Denmark, Meta’s facility channels its waste heat into the municipal district heating network, helping to warm more than 11,700 homes. Governance plays a crucial role too. Community advisory boards or benefit-sharing agreements give local people a real say in energy decisions and create accountability around costs and benefits. Scotland’s shared ownership model for renewables, in which residents hold equity stakes in nearby projects, offers a blueprint that could be adapted to the data centre sector.
Finally, operational choices such as behind-the-meter models and demand-response programmes allow centres to shift their consumption away from peak times, easing pressure on the grid and stabilising prices for residents.
Water
Water equity is about whether a data centre makes local water access more secure or puts it at greater risk. Huge cooling demands - especially in AI-heavy facilities - can strain communal supplies in ways that hit local residents hard. In the south east of England, data centres proposed over the next few years may require as much water as half a million people, putting already stressed utilities under alarming pressure. In the U.S., nearly two-thirds of new data centres since 2022 have emerged in regions grappling with high levels of water stress, with states like Texas, Arizona, California, Illinois, and Virginia bearing the brunt of this concentration.
Moreover, in drought-prone areas, facilities often rely on potable municipal water treated with chemicals that make it unusable for drinking or irrigation, effectively removing it from the local cycle. At the same time, data centres frequently pay standard municipal rates despite drawing volumes equivalent to whole towns, while neighbouring households and farms are left to manage higher costs, weaker pressure, or wells running dry.
Addressing water equity requires more than efficiency, it demands deliberate design and accountability. Planning frameworks should mandate transparent reporting, such as site-level dashboards showing real-time withdrawals and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) metrics. Cooling strategies must prioritise closed-loop systems, rainwater harvesting, or reclaimed wastewater reuse, reducing reliance on municipal potable water. In the UK, new mandates under the Energy Efficiency Directive now require data centres to report both energy and water usage, fostering much-needed transparency.
Climate
Putting the climate at the heart of data centre design means going well beyond ‘sustainable’, beyond emissions reductions, such as water efficiency, carbon-free energy, using low-carbon concrete, recycled steel or timber framing. It even means going beyond mitigating the hard-to-abate emissions with carbon removal (although this is also a must if we want to reach net zero). It means thinking of data centres as climate-positive hubs for those who live and operate in the vicinity.
Climate-positive hubs mean designing for biodiversity and nature, which in turn can mean cleaner air. Green roofs, tree planting, and on site community gardens not only soften the industrial footprint but filter pollutants, capture carbon, and generate more oxygen. In densely built urban areas, these interventions can counter the “heat island” effect and improve air quality for surrounding neighbourhoods.
Biodiversity initiatives show how climate equity can become tangible. Ireland’s ‘DCs for Bees campaign’ has planted more than 1,000 orchards and pollinator habitats across campuses. Some design and architecture firms advocate for green buffers such as community gardens, wildlife corridors and softscaping, which not only soften infrastructure but also provide spaces that improve air quality and create shared social value. Circular strategies are emerging too, with operators auditing materials for reuse and restoring sites post decommissioning to support biodiversity.
Community
Community equity is about whether the presence of a data centre strengthens the social fabric of a place or undermines it. Beyond jobs, it touches on how land is used, whether infrastructure is shared, how transparent decision-making is, and whether communities feel they have real power in shaping projects.
Data centres are often land- and resource-intensive. In Northern Virginia, for example, “Data Center Alley” has grown into the world’s largest hub, with facilities covering over 3,000 acres and prompting resident concerns about noise, visual impact, and grid strain. In Ireland, the clustering of facilities around Dublin has raised fears that communities are absorbing the costs - 18% of national electricity use as of 2022 - without proportional benefits.
At the same time, the potential for positive equity is significant. Local authorities in Sweden estimate that recovered heat from Stockholm’s data centres already warms 30,000 apartments annually, turning private waste into public benefit. In Finland, Google’s Hamina facility will provide 80% of the town’s heating demand through heat reuse. These examples show how centres can function as shared social assets when community needs are built into design.
Community equity also means governance. A UK study found that infrastructure projects with formal community benefit agreements enjoy higher trust and lower opposition. Applied to data centres, this could mean advisory boards with real decision power, binding benefit-sharing agreements, and transparency on energy, water, and emissions.
Progress, Not Perfection: Lessons From Today's Data Centres
Indigenous-led Alberta Data Centre:
Majority owned by the Woodland Cree First Nation with Sovereign Digital launch will repurpose a partially built power station with on site gas generation. The project is expected to generate revenues for education, housing and elder care, marking a rare case of community control. The governance model is innovative, though reliance on natural gas raises environmental challenges.
Pro: Community ownership ensures revenues directly support local priorities such as education and elder care.
Con: Dependence on natural gas risks locking in fossil fuel reliance and future carbon liabilities.
Energy: Built on natural gas, with potential to add renewables in the future.
Water: Plans for water use have not been clearly outlined.
Climate: Fossil reliance poses challenges for long-term sustainability.
Community: Revenues are designed to directly support local services such as education and housing
Community-led ICT centre BOSCO Uganda:
A solar powered, church and community-led digital network with more than 50 ICT centres across Northern Uganda. Local hosting, technician training and micro enterprise support are built in, with digital inclusion at its heart. It illustrates how hyper-local stewardship can underpin resilience, though financial sustainability is an ongoing challenge.
Pro: Hyper local stewardship and solar powered infrastructure create resilience and inclusion in underserved areas.
Con: Heavy reliance on donor funding raises questions about long term financial sustainability.
Energy: Runs on solar power and off-grid resilience.
Water: Water use is not a significant factor.
Climate: Low-emissions model through renewable energy.
Community: Strongly rooted in local stewardship and skills transfer.
Coalition-led NCAR Wyoming Supercomputing Center:
A coalition project involving the National Science Foundation, the State of Wyoming, the University of Wyoming and local partners. The centre demonstrates high efficiency, extensive heat reuse and provides strong education pipelines. Its drawback is a continued dependence on a fossil fuel dominated grid.
Pro: Coalition governance anchors transparency, accountability and educational benefits in the region.
Con: The local grid is still dominated by coal, undermining its overall sustainability profile.
Energy: Highly efficient but reliant on a coal-heavy grid.
Water: Transparency around withdrawals remains limited.
Climate: Delivers efficiency and heat reuse, but carbon profile is constrained by grid mix.
Community: Offers education pathways and benefits through coalition governance.
Partnership-led Data4 Marcoussis Data Centre:
A partnership with universities and startups exploring a bio-circular model by using waste heat and CO2 to grow algae for biomass. It also supports public engagement and education. The initiative is imaginative but unproven at scale.
Pro: Demonstrates innovative partnerships linking data infrastructure with ecological and community goals.
Con: The bio circular model remains experimental and untested at industrial scale
Energy: Reuses heat as part of circular design.
Water: Water footprint remains less clear.
Climate: Experimental bio circular model shows promise.
Community: Actively engages with universities, startups and the public.
Examples of reusing waste for district heating:
Equinix PA10 (France): Captures residual server heat and redirects it into local housing and the Olympic Aquatics Centre. It also experiments with rooftop urban farming as part of its integration with the community.
Meta Odense (Denmark): A hyperscale data centre connected to the municipal district heating system, supplying warmth to thousands of homes. It is among the first of its kind at scale.
Stockholm Data Parks (Sweden): A city wide programme where multiple centres sell surplus heat into the district network, providing enough warmth for 30,000 apartments each year. It serves as a policy-led template for circularity.
Google Hamina (Finland): Runs on a carbon free energy mix and is set to provide most of the town’s heating needs via captured waste heat, highlighting how digital infrastructure can be tied to local resilience.
*Note: Although reusable heat is a good sign of innovation and sustainability, residents may not actually see cheaper heating bills, while operators can recoup their investment in less than two years through selling the surplus heat.
Laying the Groundwork for Equitable, Community-First Data Centres
Today’s best data centre initiatives offer glimpses of what equitable, sustainable and community-centred infrastructure might look like, but none can yet be seen as complete models. These examples underline why embedding community and climate at the heart of planning is no longer optional - and why it also makes business sense.
Projects that begin with local needs are less likely to face delays, costly protests or reputational damage, and more likely to attract investment in an era when ESG criteria shape capital flows. Prioritising equity across energy, water, climate and community creates resilience: heat-reuse schemes with attractive rates create long-term value while cutting operating costs, and renewable co-investments provide stable power prices for both operators and residents.
By embedding all four equity dimensions at their core, data centres can move from being seen as extractive utilities to becoming genuine shared infrastructure that delivers stability, trust and long-term value, while also unlocking financial returns.
For more information on equitable data centres, climate infrastructure and carbon removal, please contact rachael@opna.earth.
Photo credits from the top: Gak Chuncheon Data Centre in South Korea, Data4 Marcoussis Data Centres, Gensler Data Centres and DCs for Bees in Ireland.
