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Data Center World 2025

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Native Habitat Landscape Design for Data Centers – A Business Case

Sandra Rolph  (Principal Landscape Architect, LEED AP, O2 Design)

Amy Paulson  (Environmental Manager - DC Site Development, Meta)

Pass Type: AFCOM Solution Provider, All Access Conference, Industry Conference, Standard Conference - Get your pass now!

Track: Data Center BUILD

Session Type: Session

Vault Recording: TBD

Audience Level: All Audiences

As the data center industry grows, there is increased attention to the potential impacts on local ecosystems. Meta has embedded native habitat restoration into its site design and business structure through the lifecycle of its data centers. Since 2010, Meta has preserved and restored over 3,500 acres of native prairie, forest, and dry land ecosystems on its data center campuses worldwide, accounting for more than half of Meta's total operational data center footprint. This initiative not only boosts local biodiversity and environmental resilience, but it has also helped realize substantial cost savings across facilities.

In this session, insights on data center habitat restoration planning, design, construction, and ongoing maintenance will be shared. It will address challenges related to assembling a qualified team, accommodating construction logistics, maintaining site flexibility, and implementing long-term adaptive management strategies across different eco-regions. Additionally, this session will include a comparison of the installation and maintenance costs of Meta's native landscapes versus traditional landscape types, to demonstrate the business benefits for greener mission critical facilities.

Learn how sustainable native habitat landscape management can achieve both ecological and economic goals in mission critical environments.

Takeaway

  • Critical steps to achieving successful landscape restoration on data center campuses, including site assessment, selection of native species, installation, establishment, maintenance, integration with existing infrastructure, and adjusting cultural mindsets and expectations
  • Important lessons learned from the design, installation, establishment, and maintenance phases, highlighting common challenges and effective strategies for creating thriving native ecosystems in data center environments
  • Economic benefits of landscape restoration, detailing how these efforts lead to significant maintenance savings over the expected lifespan of data center facilities