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ARTICLE · 11 DECEMBER 2025

AI's Environmental Footprint: Top Compliance Risks Canadian Companies Should Consider

Miller Thomson
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Artificial intelligence is accelerating across industries, but its adoption brings environmental and regulatory considerations that many organizations have not yet evaluated.

CanadaEnvironment
Tamara Farber
Tamara Farber
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Artificial intelligence is accelerating across industries, but its adoption brings environmental and regulatory considerations that many organizations have not yet evaluated. As AI workloads increase—and as companies depend more heavily on cloud and data-centre infrastructure—new environmental, ESG, and disclosure requirements are emerging at both federal and provincial levels.

Below are the environmental and compliance risks for Canadian companies to consider when deploying or scaling AI technologies.

1. Data centres are coming under heightened environmental scrutiny

Data-centre development is drawing closer attention from environmental regulators due to large energy demands, water use requirements, and local community impacts.

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