3154: The Future of Green Data Centers: Insights from HED

[00:00:04] What does the future of sustainable data centers look like in this AI-driven world that we find ourselves? Well, today I'm going to be joined by Chad Fowler, a mission-critical business leader at HED. We're going to explore that question together today. Because as global electricity consumption from data center climbs to 1%, and with AI poised to push it even higher,

[00:00:29] HED is tackling this challenge head-on by designing advanced sustainable data centers that balance efficiency, profitability and environmental stewardship. But that approach goes far beyond energy-saving technologies. Chad is going to share today how HED's integrated design philosophy is helping turn community opposition into cooperation

[00:00:55] and redefine what green design can achieve in profitability and talent attraction. And maybe adapt to the rapidly evolving demands of AI-driven infrastructure. So, big question, can sustainable data centers be the cornerstone of an AI-powered future? And can businesses turn sustainability into a strategic advantage? Let's find out now.

[00:01:25] So, a big thank you for joining me on the podcast today. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do? Hi, I'm Chad Fowler. I'm an architect by training. I've been working in the mission-critical data center space for over 25 years. That is an area that I have a passion with.

[00:01:45] I like the high collaboration in the design between the architects and the engineers, along with the cutting-edge technologies that is advancing both our society and our buildings as they move forward. I'll give a little bit of background on HED. HED, we are architects and engineers, planners.

[00:02:05] We're working across the United States with diverse backgrounds, ideas, and experiences united by our mission. Our mission is really advancing your world, which works well in our mission-critical data center environment. It is our promise that through positive impact of design, our teams create exceptional and sustainable solutions for our clients and communities around the world.

[00:02:33] Well, it's a pleasure to have you join me on the podcast today. Sustainability inside organization is a huge topic right now, especially a stat I read recently that data centers account for something like 1% of global electricity consumption. I would imagine with the success of AI, that is only going to increase. So I know this is something that you're passionate about.

[00:02:57] So how do you think data centers should be designed and operated to significantly reduce that environmental impact? Because it's something we don't talk about enough, I think. Well, yeah, yeah. It's certainly a very big topic in our world. AI is driving immense growth right now across the world, across the globe. And how do we deal with that increased consumption of electricity and other impacts that we have?

[00:03:25] Really, I see a lot of things. I mean, overall, there's continuous improvement that we have. Over my career, I've seen significant impacts on how we plan, how do we utilize, and how do we take advantage of our efficiencies that we have in front of us? When I started in data center design, data centers in the computer rooms, there was no air management. They were blowing hot air and cold air at each other.

[00:03:54] The efficiencies were just not even thought of. And that was 25 years ago. Now, the circulation of hot and cold air mixing within the room is practically unheard of. You would never do that. That alone is just a gigantic improvement of where we are. That's a step that we've already done. We'll continue to look at more efficiencies. The equipment that the industry is driving, the changes in the equipment.

[00:04:22] The industry is so large that it is driving the manufacturers to continue to look at better, more efficient solutions on how energy is utilized within that equipment. How cooling can be distributed to the in-source better and more efficiently. So I think all those things will continue to drive forward.

[00:04:50] And then it even goes to the larger aspect of how do you look at efficiently producing your electricity and how is that distributed to the in-source? There's a lot of that going on as well. Nuclear is becoming a hot topic again to be more friendly in the carbon footprint aspect as well.

[00:05:17] So I think we've come a long way and we'll continue to improve as we go on. We really will. And I think it is a challenge that every business is facing right now, especially with the rising importance of ESG scores. So what would you say are the key strategies that HED employs to make these data centers that we're talking about greener, more energy efficient? And how do these strategies align with some of those broader sustainability goals?

[00:05:46] To say, well, it's a focal point of our culture, really. That is kind of one of the center points of not just the mission critical, but all projects that we do. We try to embed that in our culture. So it's not necessarily a specific topic always, but it's just how we do work. So we're really set up and we approach every project with establishing goals, strategies, and then measuring results,

[00:06:10] which I think that allows us a good methodology in order to continually improve. Utilizing that, it's really finding good partnerships with our clients. Our clients want to continually improve how they're making their data centers greener, more energy efficiencies. We're, we are evaluating the industry. We're looking at materials.

[00:06:36] So materials, there are certain concrete that has a lower carbon footprint than the standard concrete. Those things are coming to market now. What are the best ones to use? How are you using those? We're bringing those to our clients and looking for every opportunity to do that. That's materials, equipment. We're working with the vendors, what new technology, new technologies they have coming out, how and what we should be using.

[00:07:00] And then, and something that doesn't talk a lot about efficiency, it is just in the planning aspect on data centers. There, there's a lot of, there's a lot of utilities. There's power, there's data, there's cooling. All of these things involve conveyance from point A to point B to point C to point D.

[00:07:22] Any aspect that we can do to minimize that reduces our overall usage of those materials, which in turn also help the overall impact on our, in our environment, our carbon footprints, all those things. So we're looking at any and all those aspects to, to continually reduce our environmental impact and promote our sustainability goals. I think it's a constant learning environment.

[00:07:49] And that's what we strive to do is consistently learn from one project, evaluate those results. What could we have changed? What results can we improve on in the next one? And so I think our clients appreciate that. And I know our culture within HED promotes that immensely. And it's very exciting to do. And despite their best intentions and saying the right thing in public here in the UK, there's an acronym called NIMBY, not in my backyard.

[00:08:18] I'm not sure if it's a US phrase too, but how do you approach overcoming NIMBY opposition to things like data center development and transform it into a more enthusiastic community support? It sounds simple, but it's possibly one of the biggest challenges out there. Yeah, it's that simple. It's that simple. I think us in the data center industry, we've done a terrible job of educating the public of what and why we do.

[00:08:44] If you look back of what the data centers, I mean, many of them still are and what they have historically been. I mean, they're gray boxes. They're immense gray boxes sitting on a site. They're surrounded by this big security fence. They have checkpoints to get in. I mean, the community and the public driving by that. I mean, it's scary in a sense, right? I mean, what goes on? Then you have all the PR going on that they're using all this power. They're using all those consuming immense amount of water.

[00:09:15] They're wasteful buildings. And why are they doing this? So what I feel is overall as an industry we've never done is really taking up the challenge to educate the public of what and why we do these things. Some simple changes that we can certainly do is kind of kind of unveil that mystery of what data centers are to the public. One way or another, practically every single person.

[00:09:43] I mean, if you have any device, smartphone, if you're on a computer, you are some way associated with these facilities. Social media, everything you do on social media lives in a data center somewhere. If you're streaming movies or from Netflix, say, or anything, that's all. You're connecting to a data center somewhere. I think educating the public on how their everyday use is associated with these facilities is certainly one step.

[00:10:12] The other step is really educating the people of the impact that we have on advancing technologies. As I mentioned before, the amount of energy that these facilities use is immense. It is in the best interest to the owners, the developers, in order to make these buildings more efficient to reduce overall development costs.

[00:10:38] So certainly that in that aspect, the where we have gone in the efficiency of the usage of that, the power where we started to where we are now, what are the possibilities of the future? That's not in the public realm. I think letting people know where these technologies come from, how they're pushed along really shows people the importance that our industry is putting on some of these things.

[00:11:06] Community interactions allow the public to unveil kind of what's behind the gate, right? Understand what's going on. I think something that helps in many jurisdictions, some jurisdictions are requiring this now, is the contextual aspect of the architecture of the building. Get rid of that gray box. Get rid of that gray box.

[00:11:29] Do something that is a little bit more aesthetically pleasing around the community and the regional aspects of where it's located. That's one thing that's kind of a simple thing. But let people come in, let people see what they're doing. Use it as an educational tool. What we do know, we need more people to come into the industry. We need more people to come in into the trades. We need more people to come into the operations to run these facilities.

[00:11:59] We need more architects and engineers interested in this and to concentrate in this aspect. If there's on the facilities, can with some restrictions as always, but open their doors, let people see what they are, promote some interest on what goes behind those walls. What makes it work? I mean, it's pretty fascinating what happens. There's a lot that goes on.

[00:12:24] There's a lot of people spaces, but all those things that go together are pretty complex engineering and architectural feats that make that work. And I think promoting that will also soften that kind of impact that communities feel when you bring up the word. I want to put a data center in your backyard. There's more to it than just that. I think education and knowledge and knowledge is key to make that work.

[00:12:51] And of course, another acronym that will get the attention of leadership teams is ROI. So what role does integrating green design play in enhancing things like profitability, tenant appeal and long term asset value of data centers? Because very often that's the kind of stuff that will get people's attention, right? It will. I mean, certainly in our world right now, ESG, all those things are big terms that are coming into play. Our clients are doing it.

[00:13:20] The tenants are doing this. They're all focusing on how we are all continuing to improve the workplace, what we're doing, how we're doing it. How are we performing all the way down to their consultants? So designing a building that takes in that into some of these aspects and celebrates what's happening certainly helps with a community impact.

[00:13:47] Back to what we talked about before the last question, but also allows tenants to come in and pick the right facility for them. If you have two facilities, one is meeting the tenants is supporting the tenants goals, corporate goals overall versus another one that's not. I think that's a no brainer for where to go.

[00:14:10] Of course, there's a lot of things that go into that decision, but do feel that is something that helps make that decision in long term. Overall value of the facilities.

[00:14:23] If you have a facility that is designed well, it's forward thinking on efficiencies, the materials that it uses, that 10 years from now, while it might not be cutting edge anymore, it's still a valuable story to tell and valuable assets. So I think that certainly will help continue the value of those properties as the industry continues to grow.

[00:14:51] And we mentioned earlier in our conversation about the push towards small nuclear reactors to generate vast amounts of energy needed to power its AI data centers now. So how are you seeing the rise of AI changing the way that data centers are designed and constructed? And what kind of challenges does that present for the architects and engineers listening? As a fantastic question. What are the changes? I'm not sure what the change is yet.

[00:15:19] They're happening so quickly. It is an incredibly exciting time in the industry right now. It's taking historical metrics and kind of planning power metrics and square footage. It's flipping all those things upside down.

[00:15:35] It's really requiring the architecture and engineers to be really nimble, forward thinking, continuing to be up to date on the technologies that are available and how they can be implemented into these buildings. It's, I mean, they're evaluating technologies that are, that were developed on a very small scale and deployed historically on a small scale. How do we use that on a very large scale? What are the challenges that those things come with?

[00:16:04] It's constantly learning. It's constantly looking for new options, new technologies, making sure that we're discussing that internally as a group. We're evaluating. We're evaluating. There's a lot of what ifs. So if you're using these technologies, what if this happens? What if that happens? What if that happens? You got it. You got to, you got to dig down. You got to keep going.

[00:16:26] As people are looking to implement and utilize this technology quickly, the cooling technologies are changing how that's distributed. How is the large power swings being dealt with on the server than a, and the different functions that they do. It's very exciting. There's a lot going on. Projects are continually changing mid flight.

[00:16:53] So planning a project is taking a whole nother level. As I said before, being nimble as a team, working together, collaborating with a client, collaborating internally and the consultants is really the key to continue to make those projects successful while continuing to learn what's going on in the environment. I'm really looking forward to where this ends up. That's an exciting time.

[00:17:19] And everything that we're talking about here today is a delicate balancing act. So how do you at HED balance, innovative, sustainable design with those technical demands of mission critical facilities like data centers? Again, you make it look incredibly easy, but it is not. So how do you get that balance right? It's a challenge with this current environment. Yeah. It's continually, we work with our clients. We're partnering with our clients.

[00:17:47] It's what are the things we're presenting to them? What are the things that we're finding? We're also learning from our clients what they know as well. We're evaluating them alongside. We also just to keep up, you need to do your own internal research. The HED, we're really concentrating on evaluating new ideas internally before it's brought to our clients and looking at what those were. What are the benefits?

[00:18:15] What is the right way to do the research and the advancement? Where are we going to go? What are the ideas that we have in order to get there? So it's both internally concentrating on that. And those ideas might not come to a project that might not start planning for a year or so from now. But we need to make sure we're looking there far down the road. And to bring to life some of what we're talking about here, you don't have to mention any names.

[00:18:44] You're probably locked down to this. But are there any real world examples of successful data center projects where your integrated design approach has delivered both sustainability and operational excellence? Because two big deliverables there. But do you have a use case or anything you can share? I like to think every one of ours is that way. But certainly, I have an older one that I can share. It's actually not brand new at the moment.

[00:19:10] But it was an example of using some innovations in planning sustainability goals that are not common in data center environments. This was for a financial institution, which they had a large focus on their sustainability initiatives, both internally and in our facing PR public relationships.

[00:19:36] That facility, we were really able to push some technologies and planning areas. This facility had a green roof, per se. It's not unheard of in data centers, but it's not a common area to do a green roof. It was able to utilize geothermal aspects of their surrounding land in order for heat rejection.

[00:20:04] And they were looking for it. It included photovoltaic panels, all these different components that came together to do. Well, each one by itself did not make a huge impact. But when you took all those different pieces together, it really allowed that building to excel compared to some of its counterparts on the overall sustainability and green aspect.

[00:20:33] But operationally, some of, I mean, operationally in the operation itself, there was some added complexity there. But the overall return on the efficiencies, I think, outperformed many of its counterparts at the time. So it was an exciting project that we did. And if we do dare to look into the future, look into my virtual crystal ball, it's almost impossible to predict anything now.

[00:20:59] But how do you see the future of data center design further evolving as sustainability, etc., becomes such a high priority for both tenants and investors alike? I think the impact, which we see now, I think, is on a couple different levels. There's the macro level, let's say. This is geographical location. This is also power generation.

[00:21:24] Kind of at that level, what we talk about is the nuclear impact, the SMRs. That technology, I think, is going to continue to develop. Some of the hurdles that are in front of that will be resolved. I think technologies and battery technologies, other backup technologies will continue to improve. That's really a hot market in the battery technology market.

[00:21:51] Not really even driven by the data centers, but certainly important to the data centers. But overall in our society, that battery technology, something will happen there that I think will continue to change where we are and how we're doing it at a macro level. The micro level, I think, will continue to the data center industry.

[00:22:13] Data centers don't really fall exactly on kind of the same sustainability standards as other buildings do. There's discussion within the industry of how do we standardize, how do we measure and track data centers? So there's a kind of a level set across the industry. Concentration on efficiency, the carbon footprints.

[00:22:38] How do we track that not only from the concrete and the steel that we're using, the recyclability, but how does that also, all of those pieces come into all the way down to the servers and the cabinets? All that information being standardized and available.

[00:22:55] I think as that kind of continues to push forward, there will be more measurable results that can be tracked, which I think will be important to measure how we're doing and how we will continue to improve doing. Right now, it's really based on the shell of the building. I think we need to continue to go farther, which I think the industry will do.

[00:23:20] And we've talked a lot about HED, the technology, the difference you're making, your hugely successful career. And before I let you go, I want to ask a question. I want you to look back for a moment rather than looking forward, because I think none of us are able to achieve any degree of success without a little help along the way. Very often somebody sees something and it will invest a little time into us. So I'm curious, is that a particular person or maybe even people that you're grateful towards who helped you get you where you are that we can give a little shout out to today?

[00:23:52] Certainly. I've been really lucky in my career to have many people, many great people around me, advise me, support me along my career. Many of them I've certainly worked for many years with, most of my career with in fact, and have had a large impact on certainly how I approach my project, how I approach my career. It's a little hard to name names exactly, as there's so many of those.

[00:24:19] And certainly the team I have around me now is fantastic. But early on, there was a group of people that I started my career with and worked with. There was some of them are still working, some of them are not. I would certainly shout out to a group of leaders. Robert Stein, who was an architect that mentored me along the way in design. Steve McNeese, who was one of my partners along the way. Murphy, certainly a big influence.

[00:24:47] Anthony Caracino, who early on when I started in my career was a large influence architecturally and certainly in the data center logical aspects of that. And then also Tony asked for, I'm kind of helping build my business aspects in the marketplace. So that group certainly had a big influence early on in my career and I've worked with them for many years.

[00:25:12] And that's not to discount the people that I'm around now because the people that I'm still working with are some of the best in the industry and are fantastic. Absolutely. And I think it's so important to give those people a shout out. They're probably blissfully unaware on the impact that they've had on you and your career. So hopefully they get to hear that. And for everybody else listening out there, they want to find out more information about anything we talked about today. Find out more about HED or maybe even connect with you.

[00:25:41] Where would you like to point everyone listening? Certainly the HED website is a great source and can direct some information in direct YouTube. If you're willing to get more information, we can be found at HED.design is our website. Awesome. I'll make sure there's links to everything so people can find you nice and easy.

[00:26:02] And we covered a lot there from strategies to make data centers, which collectively account for that powerful stat again, 1% of worldwide electricity consumption, make it more greener and energy efficient. Turn those staunch NIMBY opposition into eager community cooperation while also developing data centers in local communities.

[00:26:22] And I think even more important for leaders listening is integrating green design into data centers and helping them understand how it can boost profitability, attract premium tenants and enhance long-term asset value. Such an important topic. Such an important topic. Just thank you for bringing it to life and shining a big light on it today. Thanks so much. I appreciate your time, Neil. Thank you. From talking with Chris Fowler today, I think one thing is clear.

[00:26:47] The path to greener, more sustainable data centers requires not only innovation, but also collaboration between design firms, businesses and communities. And HED's commitment to integrating green design with practical solutions, I think it highlights how sustainability can also drive profitability, improve community relationships and future-proof critical infrastructure, even though we're living in the age of AI.

[00:27:15] But what role do you see sustainable design playing in shaping the future of technology? Do you think we're doing enough to bridge the gap between innovation and environmental responsibility? Please email me, techblogwriter at outlook.com. Share your thoughts. And also don't forget to spread the word about this episode to anyone you think would be curious about that intersection of technology and sustainability.

[00:27:43] But a big thank you for spending a few minutes with me today or closer to 30 minutes, I think. But thank you for joining me today. Hopefully you will join me again tomorrow and I will speak with you all then. Bye for now.