Data Center World 2024

Today, almost everything we do requires digital services. At the same time, the critical infrastructure that enables our digital lives, data centers, is experiencing increasing public scrutiny and pressure. Concerns are raised about various issues, from water, energy use, and local employment to landscaping. By building social capital, companies seek new ways to build resilience and long-term value.

We will discuss a systematic approach to business resilience with stakeholder engagement and social risk management. These can help data center operators proactively build relationships with host communities and, in doing so, better understand the perspectives of different stakeholders and use these insights to manage risk while also capitalizing on opportunities for mutual benefit.

We will share our social and human capital resilience-building framework that prioritizes social risk and opportunity assessment and management. This framework supports technology firms and companies in other sectors to make go/no go decisions, consult with communities, and earn mutual trust to build projects on time and within budget. We will also share some framework-based case studies demonstrating how considering inclusion and equity in every aspect of business, from strategy to operations to the value chain, can lead to mutual community and corporate benefit and success.

Takeaway

• Presentation of an approach to identifying and managing stakeholders to build public support for a project
• Presentation of a system for social risk and opportunity management
• Case studies of where the tech sector has built public support through strategic social risk management and community engagement