Microsoft is building wooden data centers in its latest push to cut emissions – could this be the future of AI power?
Steel and concrete, the traditional materials used in data center construction, are major carbon emittersm but in a move toward sustainability, Microsoft is testing fire-resistant cross-laminated timber (CLT) in its first wood-based data centers near a northern Virginia suburb.
The company says this project is part of an “all-hands-on-deck task” to meet the company’s ambitious climate targets: becoming carbon negative by 2030 and offsetting all emissions since its founding by 2050.
Although Microsoft has made progress towards this goal, data centers’ indirect emissions – stemming from materials extraction, manufacturing, and transport – rose by 30.9% over three years.
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