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Wednesday 23 September 2026

Roundtable II: Data Centres for a Nature-Positive Future

Harmonious Hyperscaling

Moss, New York · Climate Week NYC

David Clode

Event Summary

From differentiator to default

During Climate Week NYC, THE NAT and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation brought together a hand-picked roundtable of hyperscalers, solutions providers, investors, funders, NGOs, policy advocates and community voices.

The second session in THE NAT’s Data Centres Solution Series, it built on The True Nature of Hyperscaling at London Climate Week — pressure-testing Pledge & Publish, a draft framework for nature-positive data centres, and bringing forward solutions that are already working.

The Central Question

What would it take for nature-positive principles to be built into siting, design and operations from the start, rather than bolted on after backlash?

Five Takeaways

  1. 01

    The build-out is the opportunity.

    Directing even a small share of a multi-trillion-dollar build-out towards water, land and communities is realistic — landscape-scale restoration was described as a “rounding error” against project budgets.

  2. 02

    Community trust is now the binding constraint.

    Bipartisan opposition, moratoriums and blocked projects mean trust, rather than technology, increasingly decides what gets built.

  3. 03

    Universal principles, local solutions.

    No single standard fits Phoenix and North Holland alike. The framework needs a credible universal core with a menu of place-based options.

  4. 04

    A standard is only as strong as its measurement.

    Nature data is often missing or hidden — and communities need to be able to see it.

  5. 05

    Collective action moves faster than going it alone.

    Reputation collectives, pooled buyer leverage, pre-competitive collaboration and offtake were named as the quickest routes to change.

Numbers from the Room

50cities signed up to the C40 Global Urban Data Centre Pact, representing ~110 million people
~80%of people in the US oppose a data centre in their community, according to polling shared in the room
−33 → +16net swing in support when framed as a clean data centre built on renewable power
$150–160bnof data centre infrastructure blocked or stalled over the past year
~1bn galof water held in situ after rewetting a ~15,000-acre North Carolina peatland
92%of one hyperscaler’s data centres sit within just six of Earth’s biomes

Figures as shared by participants during the session.

Hosted with: Patrick J. McGovern Foundation · Contributors: C40 Cities, Pantheon Generation, Elemental Impact, Microsoft, Biomimicry 3.8

Next: feedback from the room will shape the next draft of Pledge & Publish.

Back to Solutions Series