Integrated Assessment of Midwest Data Centers

Through conversations between Notre Dame Energy, the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative, and the University of Notre Dame College of Engineering, hosted through the Midwest Sustainability Platform, this research responds to the complex sustainability challenges associated with rapid proliferation of data center infrastructure in the Midwest and beyond. Missing information, opaque data, and isolated research on the impacts of data centers through single disciplinary lenses challenge the holistic, interdisciplinary evaluation necessary to analyze and make informed, strategic decisions about data center development. In response, this work advances an integrated assessment approach that combines engineering, environmental, social science, and governance disciplines into an analytical framework to evaluate the costs and benefits of data center design, construction and operation through a justice lens that examines who is affected by data centers and how. This work aims to provide information, resources, and tools to maximize benefits, mitigate harms, and guide data center construction of the future.

PI and co-investigators, Joule Bergeson, Arun Agrawal, Alexander Dowling, Diogo Bolster, Daniele De Almeida Miranda, Derek Lake, Emily Grubert, Debra Javeline, Jay Gulledge, Jennifer Schaefer, Jennifer Tank, Ming Hu, Michael Niemier, Steven Koester, Susan Ostermann, Xu Han, Yong Lee, Rafia Zaman, and Guangcan Su from the University of Notre Dame College of Engineering, College of Science, College of Arts and Letters, Keough School of Global Affairs, Pulte Institute for Global Development, School of Architecture, Environmental Change Initiative, NDNano, and NDEnergy collaborate on this work.