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ARTICLE · 02 JANUARY 2026

Navigating The Challenges Of Data Center Growth - Part II: Water, Siting, And E-Waste

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This is the second post in Foley Hoag's series dedicated to the legal energy and environmental issues facing data center development and their potential sustainable solutions.

United StatesEnvironment
Basil Seggos
Basil Seggos
Aaron Lang
Aaron Lang
Elza Bouhassira
Elza Bouhassira
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This is the second post in Foley Hoag's series dedicated to the legal energy and environmental issues facing data center development and their potential sustainable solutions. Stay tuned for additional posts as we continue our deep dive into these critical topics.

In our first post exploring data center growth, we examined how developers are trying to solve three overarching challenges relating to energy use that are confronting the data center industry. In this post, we dive into three other major challenges: reducing water use, site selection and community engagement, and electronic waste generation. As in the energy space, tensions presented by these challenges are driving innovation within the industry.

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