The big players in the global data centre industry are trying to allay people’s concerns. This summer, for example, Microsoft launched its Data Center Community Pledge., external

Microsoft is promising that by next year it will procure 100% renewable energy globally. And that by 2030 it will “achieve zero waste through a combination of waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting”, and become “water positive”. The latter means that it aims for its data centres to return more water to the local supply than they use.

Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) already uses recycled water for cooling in 20 of its 125 data centres around the world, and also says it will be “water positive” by 2030.

Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, which represents dozens of data centre operators including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Meta, says that data centres are leading the way on clean energy use.

“For example, wind and solar capacity contracted to data centre providers and customers represented two-thirds of the total US corporate renewables market last year, and four of the top five purchasers of renewable energy in the US are companies that operate data centres,” he says.

“The data centre industry is also unlocking greater energy savings and efficiencies for homes, businesses, utilities, and other end users – everything from smart thermostats to grid-enhancing technologies require the digital infrastructure provided by data centres.”