TL;DR

    • Community concerns about data centers often extend beyond infrastructure to questions about AI, resource use, surveillance and Big Tech.
    • Effective community engagement starts with understanding local priorities rather than immediately presenting a project’s benefits.
  • Communities need clear information about potential impacts, including power, water, noise, land use and economic development.
  • Engagement strategies should reflect the priorities and characteristics of each individual community.
  • Sharing community engagement lessons across the industry could help improve how future projects are introduced and developed.

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Data center development is accelerating to support growing demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other digital services. At the same time, projects are facing increased public scrutiny as communities ask more questions about power, water, land use, environmental impacts and what large-scale digital infrastructure development means for them.

A recent Cool Vector podcast episode, “Data Centers Have a Community Engagement Problem,” explored this changing environment with Megan Baker, Founder and Principal of Tuli Public Affairs; Ilissa Miller, Founder and CEO of iMiller Public Relations (iMPR); and Phillip Koblence, Co-Founder of Nomad Futurist and Head of Critical Ventures. Moderated by Cool Vector host David Snow, the conversation examined why community engagement needs to become a more integral part of data center development.

Understanding What Is Driving Community Concerns

For decades, much of the public had little reason to think about the physical infrastructure supporting digital services. Today, data centers are increasingly associated with AI, energy demand, water consumption, Big Tech and other issues receiving significant public attention.

“People fundamentally fear what they are not comfortable with,” said Koblence. That uncertainty can make technical explanations alone insufficient when residents have broader concerns about how development could affect their communities.

Miller emphasized the emotional component behind some of those concerns. “It’s all rooted in fear and whether that fear is justified or not is secondary, but it’s a real emotion,” she said. “And so that’s why the facts don’t matter, because it’s emotional. They’re afraid of AI. They’re afraid of surveillance.”

Addressing those concerns requires understanding the questions behind them. Communities need information about potential impacts, but they also want to understand who is developing the project, why it is coming to their community and how local priorities will be considered.

Start With Listening

Rather than beginning with tax revenue, investment, or other anticipated project benefits, the discussion emphasized listening to communities before developing an engagement strategy. Understanding local priorities can help shape how developers communicate and identify issues that may need to be addressed earlier in the process.

“They have to slow down, listen,” said Miller. She later summarized the approach simply: “Go to these communities with curiosity.” This community-first approach puts greater emphasis on understanding what residents and local stakeholders want, need, and value before determining how a project should be communicated.

No two communities are the same, which makes a one-size-fits-all approach to community engagement ineffective. Some communities may prioritize economic development, while others may be more focused on natural resources, preserving community character or managing growth.

“We need to recognize too that each community is so different, right?” said Baker. “It can’t be a blanket procedure of going into a community and just deploying the same tools or the same process over and over again. You need to spend the time to understand, what does this community value?”

Community research and stakeholder engagement conducted early in the development process can help answer those questions before a project becomes the subject of public debate. It can also provide local leaders with better information when residents begin asking questions about power, water, noise, jobs, taxes and other potential impacts.

Sharing Lessons Across the Industry

Community engagement in one market can also influence perceptions elsewhere. Residents may view controversial projects as representative of the broader data center industry rather than the actions of a single developer, making community relationships an industry-wide concern.

Baker argued that companies have an opportunity to learn from one another rather than treating engagement strategies as proprietary. “The community engagement and sustainability tactics of these projects aren’t proprietary and they shouldn’t be. And we should be more collaborative about sharing the things that are going well and the things that aren’t going well so that we can all be moving forward with less friction,” she said.

The podcast also highlighted the Digital Infrastructure Framework being developed through OIX, which is intended to provide communities with guidance for understanding and evaluating digital infrastructure development. Efforts such as these could give municipalities additional tools for asking questions while helping developers better understand what communities need from them.

As data center development continues, community engagement is becoming another important consideration alongside power, land, connectivity and permitting. Starting earlier, listening before communicating project benefits and approaching each community individually can help developers build stronger relationships with the people and places that will ultimately host digital infrastructure.

To hear the full conversation with Megan Baker, Ilissa Miller and Phillip Koblence, listen to Cool Vector’s “Data Centers Have a Community Engagement Problem” on Substack here.