Data Centres: The True Nature of Hyperscaling

Session Overview

Held at 1 Hotel Mayfair during London Climate Action Week, THE NAT convened 45 technologists, water scientists, city officials and investors for the first in a three-part solutions series on the environmental footprint of AI infrastructure. In partnership with the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, the discussion moved past the question of whether hyperscaling will happen to how it can be shaped responsibly — surfacing water scarcity, community trust and a stark gap between climate metrics (which have RECs) and nature metrics (which don’t) as the most urgent unresolved issues. Speakers argued that cities and corporate buyers, not regulators, are emerging as the most credible levers for change, and that data centres could — and should — become an asset for communities and ecosystems rather than a source of extraction.

Speakers included:

• Jay Lipman — Co-founder, Ethic & Resilience; Co-founder, THE NAT
• J. Carl Ganter — Founder & Managing Director, Circle of Blue
• Luke Upchurch — Managing Director of Communications, C40 Cities
• Kat Bruce — Founder, NatureMetrics
• Leena Al Olaimy — Founder, Symbaiosys
• Lyndsay Harris-Kyei — VP of Global Impact & Sustainability, ServiceNow

Convening Partners: Patrick J. McGovern Foundation