The East Coast, and more specifically northern Virginia, is brimming with tech talent. Due to this talent availability, it’s also seeing tremendous growth in tech companies, and therefore data centers. According to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Virginia is home to the largest data center market globally, hosting 35% of all known hyperscale data centers worldwide. The availability of land, lower cost of energy, and tax exemptions for qualifying technology are all contributing factors to this growth. From banks, to ecommerce companies, to real estate firms, Virginia maintains a healthy diversity of companies, many of which require data centers.

Positive Environmental and Social Impacts

One area where we’re seeing a lot of change in the data center market is with regards to sustainability and environmental impacts. While there are ways to make the facilities themselves more sustainable—including reduction in energy consumption and water usage, use of sustainably sourced building materials, solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, etc.— there’s also an opportunity to incorporate sustainable practices into our design outside the building on the site/civil side of the project. Although using sustainable materials for parking lots is ideal, sometimes it can be challenging to get these materials approved by local jurisdictions.

When it comes to the campus layout, we’re directing attention to things like tree preservation, avoiding wetlands impacts, creating bike/walking paths, and creating employee spaces. At one of our larger, multi-acre project sites, we designed something akin to a recreational area around the campus and the stormwater management ponds. Trails were designed to weave around the ponds and the landscape planting produced a park that the employees can enjoy. These design decisions highlight creative thinking, resulting in an alternative to what would traditionally be a primarily concrete or asphalt campus.

While any new development will have standard requirements for elements such as environmental impacts and stormwater, many of our clients are going above and beyond minimum requirements to help foster a positive relationship with the community. " Mai-Khanh Humble

Data center developers are also increasing interests and considerations in being better neighbors. Due to the rapid population growth in this region, many data centers are being developed near residential areas. While any new development will have standard requirements for elements such as environmental impacts and stormwater, many of our clients are going above and beyond minimum requirements to help foster a positive relationship with the community. For example, one client has made efforts to stay in regular communication with residential neighbors regarding ongoing construction. Additionally, they are incorporating sound attenuating screening around equipment to reduce noise pollution.

As technology improves, populations increase, and land availability becomes more scarce, I think we can expect that data centers will continue to find ways to be more sustainable, not only for the environment, but also for the populations they serve and the communities in which they’re located.