Hope you have a good start to your week! One of the most frustrating things for me personally as someone that tries to keep tabs on data center policy at the federal and state level in the U.S. is the fragmentation of policy in different verticals. For example, I see a lot of federal bills about ratepayer protection measures to avoid the public paying for infrastructure upgrades that the data center boom is causing because they want to connect to the grid with speed to power in mind.

I also, admittedly, was only getting my policy developments from LinkedIn when I would go through a bunch of posts with different keyword combinations, “sustainable data centers”, “data center policy”, etc. It was frustrating to miss things and then find about them a week later.

To combat that and to also make information more accessible, I started working on a data center policy tracker with an eye mainly towards the federal level, but also keeping tabs on what's happening in different states. I call it the Data Center Policy Tracker, so give it a try and let me know what you think!

Chau 👋,

Nate

Why Meta Builds Its Own AI Data Centers (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): We discuss why Meta designs and operates its own custom data centers instead of relying on third-party infrastructure, how the company is preparing for the future of AI, and the engineering challenges involved in building some of the world's largest computing facilities.

Digital Uptime Episode 2 — Designing Data Centers for a Changing Climate (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): How is climate change reshaping risk for the digital infrastructure and data center sector? Host Ester Calavia is joined by senior directors Dulce Perez and Richard Bater from Willis' Climate Practice to explore the growing exposure of digital infrastructure to natural catastrophes and chronic climate hazards.

Introducing Grid 2.0, the Open Protocol for the American Grid (AI & Energy): A special bonus episode where Jigar sits down with Chris Shelton to launch Grid 2.0. If this gets adopted, it changes how every new data center and battery in America gets onto the grid.

Powering AI: How Do Data Centers Affect Renewable Energy Investment? (AI & Energy): This paper examines how the growth in data centers due to the AI revolution affects investment in renewable electricity generation, suggesting that rising electricity demand from data centers does not necessarily undermine the net-zero transition. Authors: Heiss et al. Journal: HKU Business School.

AI-Driven Productivity Gains Enable More CO₂ Emissions Than They Avoid in a Global Energy–Economy Model (AI & Climate Science): The net climate impacts of AI depend largely on how its applications propagate through competing energy pathways. Absent policy steering, AI's modeled effects increase the carbon intensity of the global economy and reinforce fossil fuel incumbency. Authors: Alpine et al. Journal: npj Climate Action.

Power-Flexible AI Data Centers: A New Paradigm for Grid-Responsive Compute (AI & Data Centers/Hardware/Model): This article explores how modern GPU-based AI data centers can operate as grid-interactive assets that respond dynamically to power system conditions, describing an architecture that integrates grid signals, workload scheduling, and power telemetry for fine-grained cluster power control. Authors: Williams et al. Journal: arXiv.

AI Scenarios 2030: Helping Policymakers Plan for the Future of AI (AI & Economic Transformation): A scenario-planning resource to help policymakers prepare for the range of ways AI could reshape the economy and society by 2030. Authoring Body: UK Government Office for Science.

Making Data Centers Sustainable: Reducing the Environmental Impact of SAP Data Centers (AI & Infrastructure): SAP's overview of how it works to reduce the environmental footprint of its data center operations across energy, water, and emissions. Authoring Body: SAP.

The Data Center Development Playbook: Responsible Rules of the Road for AI Buildout (AI & Infrastructure): A playbook laying out responsible principles for siting and building data centers as part of the AI buildout. Authoring Body: Chamber of Progress.

AI Data Centers: Separating Fact from Fiction | Penn & Wharton Experts (AI & Multiple Applications): As companies race to build the next generation of AI, data centers have become the focus of heated debates over electricity demand, water use, and economic impact. This webinar features experts from the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania sorting the guesswork from what still needs to be understood.

NAE - The Bridge - Webinar on Spring 2026 Issue on AI-Driven Data Centers (AI & Multiple Applications): This webinar focuses on the Spring 2026 issue, AI-Driven Data Centers, examining how advanced engineering can help create smarter, more resilient data centers capable of meeting the rapidly growing energy demands of the AI era.

He Built Robinhood. Now He's Building Rockets. (AI & Multiple Applications): Brian Sozzi sits down with Cowboy Space Corporation founder and CEO Baiju Bhatt to discuss his plan to build rockets that become part of massive orbital data centers, using solar power, reusable rockets, and space-based computing to bypass the energy, land, and infrastructure constraints facing AI data centers on Earth.

LoüTeq Solutions (AI & Infrastructure): A leading supplier and manufacturer of SEB (Structural Engineered Bamboo) technology for building solutions. Location: North America.

Terion (AI & Agriculture): The leading digital infrastructure company for agriculture, spanning verification, compliance, sustainability, and AI. Location: Other.

Tokamak Energy (AI & Energy): Commercialising fusion energy and its groundbreaking HTS magnet technology. Location: United Kingdom.

Posetiv (AI & Sustainability): Look into the carbon intensity of data centers and other infrastructure through the UK API. Price: FREE.

Planet Agentic AI Beta (AI & Geospatial Analysis): Explore, analyze, and understand the physical world with agentic AI, powered by the world's largest living record of Earth. Price: FREEMIUM.

Data Center Atlas with the Abundance Institute (AI & Infrastructure): A tool by the Abundance Institute exploring the local economic, fiscal, and resource impact of data center siting across the United States. Price: FREE.

If you have resources that you wish to submit to the AI & Environment Resource Hub, fill out the Google Form! Thank you for suggesting resources to add to the Resource Hub. 🙃

Found this meme on Reddit, I CAN’T. 😆

Thanks for reading the 54th issue of The Climate Code! It means a lot to me and we have more coming in the future, so definitely stick around! 💚

Nate

PS 😁

New here? I would recommend checking out Data Center Battlegrounds (our YouTube channel focusing on the environmental impacts of data centers) and also the AI & Environment Resource Hub itself.

PPS 😆

If you’re feeling EXTRA GUTSY, connect with me here on LinkedIn! Say hey 👋.