The Growth of Artificial Intelligence and Data Centers

• By: AWMA
• On: 12/03/2025 10:53:18
• In: EM Articles
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by Justin Walters

This issue of EM explores the growth of AI and data centers and the importance of developing thoughtful sustainability frameworks, responsible permitting, and collaborative solutions to support technological advancement while addressing environmental and societal considerations. 

Throughout history, revolutionary advances in technology have brought waves of dramatic change to society. Innovations, such as electricity, the internal combustion engine, telecommunications, and computers, to name a few, have brought rapid growth in economic productivity and have radically changed the way we live our lives. It was little more than a century ago that the automobile became the dominant form of transportation over other modes, such as walking, horse and buggy, and rail.

Today, what once seemed like science fiction has become reality. Now, driverless vehicles are navigating our complex system of highways and city streets, powered by the latest revolutionary technology, artificial intelligence (AI). According to the AI Index 2025 Annual Report from Stanford, the robotaxi company, Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, provides an astounding “150,000 paid rides per week, covering over a million miles.” This barely scratches the surface on the myriad ways that AI can help improve our world, with the potential to bring on a new age of transformation impacting transportation, healthcare, energy, business, and education. AI is even changing ways in which we entertain ourselves. The “Earn from AI” tech blog reports how a viral AI cat video once garnered a whopping 43 million views on TikTok in one week!

The engines behind the AI boom are data centers, housing millions of servers worldwide to provide the computing power needed for machine learning and for processing and generating interactive responses. According to a 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Energy's Berkeley Lab, electricity consumption from data centers is projected to grow from 4.4% of total U.S. consumption in 2023 to as much as 12% by 2028.

This issue of EM presents five articles that delve into the expansion of AI and data centers, examining their implications for energy use, water usage, emissions, and community impacts. 

In the first article, Rhea Bhansali explores environmental impacts of AI and data center growth, focusing on how AI workloads are driving a dramatic increase in electricity demand and water use for cooling. The article discusses the need for transparent reporting and sustainable design.

Kaitlyn Bencosme authors the next article, which focuses on air quality permitting implications of the rapid expansion of the U.S. data center industry. It traces the evolution of data centers from the 1940s to today's gigawatt-scale facilities and discusses the challenges posed by their massive electricity consumption.

The third article, by Kareem Scales, explores how data center development intersects with environmental justice and community activism, using Boxtown, Memphis, as a case study. It presents perspectives from residents and advocates on potential health and infrastructure impacts, and outlines approaches, such as permitting reforms and community benefit agreements, which aim to align technological growth with local priorities and sustainability objectives. 

Next, Inez Hua and colleagues present a structured framework for evaluating the environmental impacts of computing systems, including AI and data centers. The article introduces three evaluation tools called FUEL (for carbon emissions), SCARF (for water stress), and FABRIC (for biodiversity loss).

The final article by Kyong Song discusses how generative AI can transform environmental permitting and compliance by enabling organizations to process and analyze unstructured data (such as PDFs and documents) at scale. It explains the benefits of AI-integrated workflows and outlines the differences between off-the-shelf and custom AI solutions for environmental management.

We thank the authors for their insightful contributions and hope you enjoy reading them.

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