Sustainability Street: Data Centers Reach a Crossroads

Welcome back to Sustainability Street, our podcast on the intersection of commercial real estate and the world we live in.For this episode, I am talking about data centers and sustainability with Suhail Tayeb, an investor, developer and the director of the Center for the Sustainable Built Environment at New York University's Shack's Institute of Real Estate within the School of Professional Studies.As data centers proliferate across the country, there's been backlash from communities and environmentalists about the speed at which they've consumed land, power and water.Some concerns are valid, Tayeb said, but the reality is much more layered. Well-planned projects digital infrastructure projects have gotten lumped in with poorly sited and poorly communicated ones.  "Talking to people, letting them know what's going to happen, what are the effects, what are the impacts," he said. "That's what determines whether these projects are responsible or disruptive."Tayeb explains how data centers differ from traditional real estate, and that, as data centers transition from their speed phase to their strategy phase, how they source their energy and justify their presence locally, will make the difference between success and failure. Here are the key topics our conversation covered:(1:24) Student and teacher of sustainable construction(4:23) Why data centers are not really real estate at all(9:26) Exit the speed phase; enter the strategy phase(10:55) Data centers and power generation(14:48) Innovations in sustainable construction(18:51) Recommendations for data center developers