Ramboll launches strategic roadmap at Climate Week NYC to cut data centre carbon, water use and biodiversity impact

Ramboll launches strategic roadmap at Climate Week NYC to cut data centre carbon, water use and biodiversity impact

(IN BRIEF) Ramboll has released a new report at Climate Week NYC that sets out a detailed roadmap for reducing the environmental impact of data centres, offering achievable benchmarks for carbon reduction, biodiversity protection, circularity, and water neutrality. The report highlights the urgent challenges posed by the rapid growth of AI-driven data centres, which already account for 1.5% of global electricity use and are expected to double by 2030. It outlines solutions such as achieving net zero operational carbon through energy efficiency, renewable procurement, and energy reuse; reducing embodied carbon by using low-carbon or recycled materials; protecting ecosystems with early biodiversity planning; eliminating waste through circular design; and achieving water neutrality by adopting alternative cooling and water reuse strategies. Ramboll stresses that these measures not only mitigate environmental harm but also create economic opportunities, such as reusing excess heat, positioning sustainable practices as essential for the sector’s future.

(PRESS RELEASE) COPENHAGEN, 23-Sep-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — Ramboll has unveiled a groundbreaking report at Climate Week NYC that charts a practical path toward making data centres more sustainable while addressing their growing environmental footprint.

The report, Developing sustainable data centres: A strategic roadmap to achieve net zero carbon and reduce environmental impact, outlines concrete actions across the full value chain of data centre development. It presents owners, developers, operators, and consultants with measurable benchmarks that tackle some of the sector’s most pressing sustainability challenges, including embodied and operational carbon, biodiversity, water, circularity, and material use.

The rapid global expansion of data centres—driven by the acceleration of artificial intelligence—has amplified concerns around electricity demand, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and biodiversity loss. Ramboll’s Global Director of Technology and Innovation, Ed Ansett, emphasised the urgency of the issue: “The construction of data centres powered by the rise of artificial intelligence is booming across the globe, driving unprecedented demand for electricity and significantly contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions, increased water consumption, waste production, habitat destruction, and resource depletion. These challenges can be managed and mitigated if data centres are built with climate, biodiversity, and circularity impacts in mind from the very start.”

According to the International Energy Agency, data centres consumed around 1.5% of global electricity last year, with demand projected to double by 2030. Since energy use makes operational carbon the dominant factor in the sector’s emissions, the report stresses that achieving net zero operational carbon is possible. Pathways include optimising energy efficiency, prioritising renewable procurement, enabling energy reuse and export, and introducing demand response measures.

Embodied carbon, stemming from the materials used in construction, can also be mitigated. The report advocates for low-carbon alternatives such as sustainable steel and concrete, the reuse of materials from decommissioned structures, and sourcing building materials locally wherever possible.

Beyond carbon, Ramboll highlights the need to protect and enhance biodiversity. The roadmap urges developers to incorporate ecological surveys and landscape planning from the earliest stages to safeguard habitats, species, and ecological corridors, ensuring that data centres are designed to deliver net positive environmental outcomes.

Circularity is presented as another essential pillar, with the report recommending that data centres achieve a closed-loop model where all materials are reusable, recycled, or recyclable, eliminating waste to landfill or incineration. Meanwhile, tackling excessive water use—particularly in regions facing water scarcity—requires operators to adopt water neutrality. Recommended practices include reducing dependency on water-based cooling, increasing cycles of concentration, harvesting rainwater, and implementing advanced water reuse systems.

“Circular thinking not only benefits the environment but also creates economic opportunities,” noted Ed Ansett. “For example, the byproduct heat generated from data centre operations has traditionally been wasted. With the right systems in place, this excess energy can be repurposed and supplied to external networks, creating additional value streams.”

Ramboll’s roadmap ultimately positions sustainable data centre development as both an environmental necessity and a strategic opportunity, calling on the industry to adopt practices that protect ecosystems, conserve resources, and contribute to net zero goals.

Media contact:
Ed Ansett
Global Director, Data Centre Technology and Innovation
press@ramboll.com

SOURCE: Ramboll Group AS