When something new starts taking shape in a community, it’s natural for people to ask questions about purpose and impact. Data centers have been quietly propelling the world forward for over 30 years, enabling essential daily services like video calls, banking apps, and smart home devices. Despite this, public discussion often focuses on concerns about cost, noise, pollution or appearance, sometimes overlooking the broader context of need, investment, and integration. These concerns deserve clear and honest answers.
Responsible data center development is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The best projects are designed with a focus on long-term intent, efficiency, and partnership with the communities they serve. Data center owners want to be good neighbors. Becoming part of the community requires a thoughtful balance between economic, ecological and social elements that are unique to that local community and have a positive impact on those who live and work there. When done right, they establish long-term jobs and fuel economic growth. This article addresses key community concerns, explaining how data centers can be developed to benefit everyone.
Private Investment Strengthens Public Infrastructure
A frequent concern is that data centers will strain the power grid and that residents will be forced to bear the cost of expensive system upgrades. The truth is that data centers often help modernize energy systems by paying for upgrades that benefit other nearby customers. These are private investments by these companies that do not affect individual utility bills or drive up rates. These improvements can include new equipment, extending existing power lines, and upgrading switch stations. These measures can make the electricity supply more reliable for everyone in the region and prepare the grid for future energy needs. This is a critical point — as the U.S. grid deteriorates, data centers are funding some of these improvements, accelerating necessary repairs and enhancements, effectively filling funding gaps. This leads to more consistent service and fewer interruptions for residents and businesses.
This growth, however, proceeds with careful planning. Responsible development advances in phases, ensuring that data centers don’t outpace the grid or edge out local energy needs. By working directly with local stakeholders from the outset, responsible developers ensure that growth is thoughtful and coordinated rather than hasty and haphazard.
Environmental Care Guides Development
Environmental concerns related to data centers—such as air quality, carbon footprint, and water usage—have been widely discussed in public forums. These issues are also significant considerations for data center developers, although the progress made in the industry may not be well known to the general public.
Many of the largest data center projects, including Meta and AWS, have standardized on alternative fuel sources to power their generators. This includes renewable natural gas, hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) and biodiesel reducing harmful particulates by 90%+ and carbon emissions by ~95%. This has a positive impact on local air quality.
Many companies also pledge to incorporate clean energy across their portfolios, investing in new clean energy projects with utilities and helping to decarbonize the electric grid for the entire region, not just their specific facility. Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta are the largest clean energy buyers in the world funding 21.7GW of renewable US energy contracts in 2024 alone, bringing cumulative clean energy procurement in the country since 2014 to 100GW.
In 2022, the digital infrastructure industry demonstrated a united front against climate change by launching the iMasons Climate Accord. This initiative brought together the world’s largest data center owners with a common goal: to significantly reduce global carbon emissions. Through the Accord, these companies committed to lowering the carbon footprint not only from the electricity powering their operations but also from the materials to build data centers and equipment used in them. By collaborating on best practices and shared standards, these industry leaders are advancing efforts to minimize environmental impact across the entire lifecycle of data center development and operation. This has a direct positive impact to the local communities where these data centers are built.
Another oft-cited concern is water usage. Modern projects follow strict local governmental rules where the water supply is carefully studied to ensure enough water is available for everyone – a process that is the same as for any construction project.
Responsible data center developers constantly seek ways to reduce water use. Many modern facilities are being built using systems that use reclaimed water, recycle water, or require almost no water by using closed-looped cooling continuously recirculating the same water within a sealed system, eliminating the need for fresh water intake and preventing water loss through evaporation. This innovation helps protect local water reserves and groundwater tables. This could include working with local jurisdictions to obtain variances for xeriscaping (using drought-tolerant plantings that do not require extensive irrigation) or deploying Air-Cooled Chiller (ACC) or Dx cooling technology designed to strategically operate without large amounts of water.
Environmental responsibility reflects a broader long-term commitment, which also applies to economic benefits, prompting the common question: Do data centers really benefit the communities they enter?
Investing in Communities’ Futures
Concerns about job creation and long-term commitment have been raised by some communities. Contrary to popular belief, data center deployments contribute significantly to job creation in surrounding local areas beyond the data centers themselves. According to the Data Center Coalition, for every direct job at a data center in the US, there are six additional jobs created. These jobs are in construction, electrical and mechanical engineering, security, catering, delivery and other fields. This job growth does not account for new jobs in digital services that the data centers support.
Data centers provide significant and lasting economic benefits to the regions where they are built. Between 2017 and 2023, the data center industry’s total annual employment contribution in the U.S. grew from 2.9 million jobs to 4.7 million jobs, a 60% increase. Large construction projects create jobs for skilled workers, and the operational phase of the data center offers stable, long-term employment for hundreds of people in roles such as electricians, IT technicians, and security staff. These are high-paying jobs that often don’t require college degrees. In addition, data centers host consistent business and technical visitors that fly into local airports, rent hotels and cars, dine at restaurants and shop at local stores.
The economic footprint reaches beyond direct employment and business travelers, though. Data centers also contribute to the region’s tax base by paying property taxes, which can contribute substantial amounts to state coffers over time. Take the state of Arizona: data centers contributed more than $863 million in state and local taxes in 2023. According the DCC, for every dollar that data centers use in local government services, they put back between $8 and $17 in local tax revenue to that community. This revenue supports community priorities like education, transportation, and public safety.
Also, companies that build and operate data centers are typically large and stable enterprises, making considerable, long-term investments and signing multi-decade leases, signaling that they plan to stay. This long-term presence brings stability and sustained economic benefit to the community. Many also support local programs, education initiatives, and nonprofits as part of their broader corporate responsibility. In some cases, sustainability efforts are designed to integrate with local needs in ways that outlast construction, creating partnerships and resources that continue to benefit the community long after the facility is operational.
Powering Daily Life Without Disruptions
Residents often ask why so many data centers are dotting the landscape recently. The answer is simple: our population’s demand for digital services currently exceeds national data center capacity, according to commercial real estate data companies like JLL. Data centers power the internet, cloud storage, and the digital tools used by all of us. They are essential for hospitals, banks, schools, emergency services, small businesses, and so much more.
As more of these essential facilities are built, another concern can crop up: the visual and sound impact. Unlike traditional factories or warehouses, data centers do not create heavy traffic. generating significantly less noise from vehicles and loading docks. Responsible developers carefully consider noise transmission when placing equipment to ensure that the sound levels emanating from the sources are at or below the local ordinances. This includes sound absorbing materials, acoustic barriers and alterative fuels cutting noise from fans, cooling towers and generators. And while some data centers are allowed by zoning rules to be built in the vicinity of residences, most are carefully placed away from neighborhoods.
Beyond careful site selection, developers also use innovative strategies like building positioning, trees, and attractive screening to further lower noise and help blend the data centers into the landscape. These projects are thoughtfully designed to present an elevated aesthetic, ensuring they fit into the community.
A Moment That Belongs to Us
As new data centers rise, they shouldn’t be symbols of uncertainty. Instead, there are signs of infrastructure catching up to the digital reality we already live in. When developed with transparency, local coordination, and long-term vision, data centers can deliver lasting public value. They can strengthen our nation’s grid, support jobs, provide consistent tax revenue for schools and public services while positively impacting the environment. What matters now isn’t whether data centers are coming, but whether the ones that arrive reflect the values of the places they serve and a shared willingness to invest in what endures. The data center industry is focused on being good neighbors that positively contribute to the communities they operate in. If you are interested in learning more about how our industry is doing this, please visit the iMasons Social Accord. You can also learn more in Greener Data Volume II, Responsible and Sustainable Growth in Digital Infrastructure.
Responsible growth is never accidental. It’s built, with intention, with partnership, and with respect for the people who are already here.
That’s the standard to demand. And it’s the one everyone should aim to meet.