Urban Data Centres: Creating a vision for a Sustainable Digital Future

The modern world runs on data, and data needs data centres. The cloud is in fact physical infrastructure that should be planned and integrated into our communities, supporting economic and environmental sustainability. The growth of AI and its application in financial, medical and business sectors, as well as municipal services and addressing climate change, means more data centre capacity is needed. That demand is driving rapid, largely unregulated growth.

Urban data centres are one of the fastest growing challenges facing mayors, with more than 1,700 located in the 97 C40 cities alone. C40 believes that sustainable data centres should be:

1) integrated into the urban fabric;

2) Resource-efficient - using as little water and energy as possible, aiming to use only green energy;

3) Accountable and community-focused, ensuring transparency on their plans and impact;

4) Partners in shared prosperity and cost-security

The session aims to raise awareness on this topic by discussing the latest research on:

factors driving the growth in urban data centres

Identifying regional growth hotspots

emerging best practice and the opportunity for city innovation and leadership