The Cloud Next Door: Investigating the Environmental and Socioeconomic Strain of Datacenters on Local Communities
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3715335.3736324.pdf
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Author(s)
Ngata, Wacuka M
Bashir, Noman
Westerlaken, Michelle
Liote, Laurent
Chandio, Yasra
Olivetti, Elsa
Date Issued
July 21, 2025
Publisher
ACM|ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies
Citation
Wacuka M Ngata, Noman Bashir, Michelle Westerlaken, Laurent Liote, Yasra Chandio, and Elsa Olivetti. 2025. The Cloud Next Door: Investigating the Environmental and Socioeconomic Strain of Datacenters on Local Communities. In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS '25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 769–774.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Datacenters have become the backbone of modern digital infrastructure, powering the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and promising economic growth and technological progress. However, this expansion has brought growing tensions in the local communities where datacenters are already situated or being proposed. While the mainstream discourse often focuses on energy usage and carbon footprint of the computing sector at a global scale, the local socio-environmental consequences—such as health impacts, water usage, noise pollution, infrastructural strain, and economic burden—remain largely underexplored and poorly addressed. In this work1, we surface these community-level consequences through a mixed-methods study that combines quantitative data with qualitative insights. Focusing on Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” we highlight how datacenter growth reshapes local environments and everyday life, and examine the power dynamics that determine who benefits and who bears the costs. Our goal is to bring visibility to these impacts and prompt more equitable and informed decisions about the future of digital infrastructure.
Description
COMPASS ’25, Toronto, ON, Canada
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1145/3715335.3736324
