Data center projects have been flooding into Northwest Indiana, often raising concerns from residents who would have to live with them for years to come.
Advocates of data centers say they can be designed to minimize impact, such as by using renewable energy or closed-loop cooling systems that return water to its source.
Academics say communities can take steps to ensure data centers are as sustainable and low-impact as possible, typically by putting requirements in place during the planning and permitting process. When hyperscale data centers come to town, cities and towns can negotiate community benefit agreements that can bring some improvements such as upgrades to the electrical grid, investments in the local workforce and STEM funding in schools, Indiana University Cybersecurity Clinic Executive Director Isak Nti Asare said.
"Local governments have a substantial amount of leverage," Asare said. "They are well aware of what people want and the concerns people have about data centers. Design choices can determine what sort of impact data centers have. Broad things like a cooler climate, lower water stress, strong grid capacity, the protection of sensitive habitat and stormwater can be handled in the design and the deal."
Experts say there are ways data centers can have a lower impact than many assume, such as by locating on already developed land, using high-efficiency servers, taking advantage of the existing grid, operating at high utilization, reusing waste heat and minimizing water use through closed-loop or air-based cooling, Virginia Tech John W. Hancock Professor of Engineering Dimitrios Nikolopoulos said. They can, for instance, use renewable energy, which some large tech players like Microsoft and Google have pledged to do.
"There’s a wide range in how much data centers rely on renewables. Some big players, like Google and Microsoft, sign long-term power-purchase agreements and aim for 24/7 carbon-free energy, while many other operators still largely depend on conventional grids and renewable energy credits," Nikolopoulos said. "Even '100% renewable' claims usually refer to annual accounting, not real-time clean power. I think we should aim higher: match workloads with local renewables in real time where possible, add on-site solar or storage when it makes sense, and design centers to shift some AI workloads to follow the sun and wind."
Energy demand is soaring
Data centers use a lot of energy, said University of Chicago professor of computer science Andrew A. Chien. Data centers consumed about 280 terawatt-hours of electricity, or an average of roughly 32 gigawatts of power, over the course of a year.
"This number is growing fast and expected to exceed 80 gigawatts by 2028," he said.
By 2028, data centers will consume 8% of all electricity generated in the United States, Chien said. They already account for a major fraction of total grid power in dense data center areas like Northern Virginia, where data centers consume 30% of the power today and are expected to exceed 50% by the mid-2030s. Data centers now consume more than 20% of electricity in Ireland and are projected to use more than 30% of power on the Emerald Isle before 2030.
Data centers are inherently power-guzzling and are not going to reduce energy consumption, Chien said.
"This is not going to happen. Their growth is rapid," he said. "They make significant money on every MWh they consume for cloud and AI, so there is no real economic incentive for them to reduce their growth."
Data centers, however, can reduce their carbon footprint through measures like energy efficiency, longer equipment lifetimes and the use of low-carbon footprint materials, Chien said. The biggest thing that can be done to make them more sustainable is avoid evaporative cooling to keep water consumption to a minimum.
"Beyond that they should be flexible power grid loads — this reduces the amount of pressure they put on the grid," he said. "That pressure causes much more generation plants and transmission to be built, which is bad for sustainability and it's also not what data centers want, as the pressure slows down approval of their connection to the grid."
Where data centers are built matters
Data centers can also be located to minimize impact, such as in areas already zoned for industrial use, Nikolopoulos said.
Ideally, they would be located in industrial and commercial areas with strong electric grid connections, good access to clean energy and low-flood and climate risk.
"Locations in cooler climates with access to hydro or wind — like Luleå, Sweden, or parts of Norway—show how siting can dramatically reduce both cooling energy use and the carbon footprint," Nikolopoulos said. "Ideally, they’re also close to where people and businesses actually use data — cities, campuses, transport hubs — so we’re not hauling everything to far-off mega-hubs. I’m particularly fond of reusing old industrial lots, brownfields or even parking structures for modular data centers that blend into what’s already there."
Air cooling of the computer servers in data centers is possible in colder climates, cutting down on water usage, Asare said. But water can absorb heat, making data centers more energy-efficient so there's a trade-off, he said.
With thoughtful planning, data centers can be sustainable, Nikolopoulos said. Developers need to consider the entire life cycle of data centers, including construction materials, energy mix, water use, hardware refresh and eventual decommissioning, Nikolopoulos said.
"That means high utilization, reuse, and recycling of hardware, and architectures that deliver more compute per watt and per cubic meter — essentially miniaturizing the data center," Nikolopoulos said. "It also means being a good long-term neighbor: sharing waste heat, supporting public services, and being transparent about environmental performance. To me, a sustainable data center isn’t just efficient; it’s built to play the long game with its community."
How operators can reduce local impacts
Data centers can address common community concerns by following best practices, Asare said. Some options include using a closed-loop system to avoid wasting water or immersion cooling to prevent the discharge of heated water that could disturb aquatic life.
"From my perspective, the future of AI servers is underwater or in some type of fluid with no waste of water," he said.
The use of renewable energy to power data centers rather than relying solely on renewable energy matching would minimize the carbon footprint, Nikolopoulos said.
Data center operators need to invest in sustainable design to mitigate environmental issues and avoid placing hyperscale data centers down on undeveloped sites, Nikolopoulos said. He believes the data centers should shift away from mega-campuses to networks of smaller sites with impacts that are easier to monitor and manage.
"They can mitigate impacts by investing heavily in efficiency, clean power and low-water cooling; by avoiding water-intensive designs in drought-prone regions; and by building on already disturbed land rather than carving up new greenfields," Nikolopoulos said. "Many operators are now publishing detailed energy and water metrics and setting targets for power-usage effectiveness and water-usage effectiveness, which is a good start."
Data centers can take advantage of cold weather to limit cooling needs, use air cooling to minimize water use and capture and recycle heat, such as by using it to heat homes, Asare said.
Lower-impact data centers have been built around the world, including in Scandinavia, Nikolopoulos said. They use high shares of renewable power and seawater or fjord water for cooling.
"Google’s Hamina facility in Finland operates in a converted paper mill, uses seawater cooling from the Bay of Finland, and is now feeding recovered heat into the local district heating network," he said. "In Norway, Lefdal Mine Datacenter runs in a former mine with cold fjord-water cooling and 100% renewable electricity, and Green Mountain’s DC1-Stavanger reuses waste heat to support land-based lobster and trout farming. I see these as early prototypes for a broader shift toward smaller, integrated, community-serving data centers that minimize land, water and carbon footprints rather than giant, stand-alone campuses."
Environmental concerns must be built in early
Environmental concerns need to be addressed from the start in the design process, such as how data centers are cooled, Nikolopoulos said. Energy, water, noise and heat should be integrated into the design rather than treated as afterthoughts.
"In practice, that points to high-efficiency direct-to-chip liquid or immersion cooling, sometimes paired with free cooling from outside air where the climate allows, and designed from day one to capture and reuse waste heat—for example, feeding it into district heating or industrial processes," he said. "I’d love to see the industry ditch huge, water-guzzling evaporative towers in hot, dry places and move toward smaller, closed-loop systems that pack more computing into less space, with less waste."
Closed-loop water systems are more expensive but are considered a best practice, Asare said.
"Local governments need to ask about cooling during the permitting process," he said. "It shouldn't be an afterthought. Local governments need to start to think about these things before they give approvals."
Data centers also can be designed to minimize the disruption to wildlife, which Scandinavian data centers have done in both fjord and forest environments, Nikolopoulos said. Size and location are key to ensuring data centers do not impose on birds, deer or other native species.
"Data centers can avoid harming wildlife by skipping critical habitats and migration paths, using dark-sky-friendly lighting, and ensuring that noise and heat don’t leak into nearby natural areas," he said. "Planting native vegetation and maintaining buffer zones around the site help. Once again, putting smaller centers on land that’s already developed is far gentler than bulldozing untouched greenfields for a giant campus."
Public acceptance hinges on local gains
If designed in a thoughtfully, data centers can have less of an impact than many residents fear, Nikolopoulos said. Google’s Hamina heat-recovery project and Green Mountain’s lobster and trout partnerships are examples of how data center waste can be used to benefit surrounding communities, he said.
"The key is to be open, thoughtful and accountable. That means sharing real numbers on energy, water, noise, and traffic; choosing designs and cooling systems that keep those impacts low; and delivering visible community benefits, such as tax revenue, local jobs, training programs, or shared waste heat for buildings," he said. "Combined with smaller, modular data centers that fit into the neighborhood fabric, this approach can give people the digital infrastructure they need without confirming their worst fears."
Local governments have to approve data center projects and can use that leverage to ensure the developers address residents' concerns, Asare said.
"There's the consideration of how do you make sure the design respects the character of places," Asare said.
Data center operators also need to consider community impact if they want to be able to develop new data centers in the face of mounting public opposition, Chien said.
"They are largely neutral with no major benefit and no major negative impact, but community resistance is growing," he said. "If data center companies don't produce durable, long-running community benefits, they will spawn a big backlash due to their exploitation of tax abatements and environmental damage."