Data Centers & Environmental Justice

This program addresses the hidden costs of digital infrastructure by centering data centers as an environmental justice issue. We develop tools, research, and advocacy strategies to ensure communities can shape decisions about where and how data centers are built.

This program addresses the hidden costs of digital infrastructure by centering data centers as an environmental justice issue. We develop tools, research, and advocacy strategies to ensure communities can shape decisions about where and how data centers are built.

Data centers are multiplying across the United States and globally, driving demand for electricity, water, and land at unprecedented scales. Yet their impacts remain largely invisible. Rooted Futures Lab's Data Centers + EJ program confronts this gap through research, coalition-building, and public tools built with and for the communities most affected.

Our flagship tool, the Data Center Impact Dashboard, is a free, open-source contextual storytelling platform that makes the socio-environmental footprint of data center infrastructure accessible to organizers, journalists, and community researchers. 

We also design creative interventions, from negotiation simulations to storytelling projects, that demystify data infrastructure and strengthen community power in siting decisions. Our goal is to reframe data centers not just as technical facilities, but as contested environmental justice landscapes. Get in touch with us at info@rootedfutureslab.io to learn more.