Please contact Jordan Snyder at jordan.snyder@erm.com with any questions in regards to this event.
Data centers, the critical infrastructure that enables our digital lives, are facing increased regulation, permitting and construction delays, and increased interest for public input.
New and existing data centers are facing stakeholder interest around opportunities for engagement, water management, energy use, visual impacts, and local employment. A systematic approach to community engagement and social risk management can build business resilience, enable more predictable permitting timelines, and mitigate costs associated with project delays resulting from public scrutiny. By proactively building relationships with host communities, data center operators can understand the perspectives of different stakeholders and leverage those insights to manage risk, while also enabling opportunities for mutual benefit.
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About the Webinar
In this webinar we will discussed how data center operators can proactively consult with communities, earn trust, and create positive social impacts where they operate. We explored how environmental justice considerations influence the community education process and the key aspects of these regulations regarding engagement planning and social risk management. We leveraged experiences of robust public engagement from other industries, which have operated in and adjacent to communities, such as the energy and mining sectors. This session will be of interest to individuals responsible for real estate development, capital project investments, communications and media strategy, external and government affairs, social impact management, and stakeholder engagement. Topics included:
- How effective stakeholder public involvement will help your project get approved faster and with less concessions and community opposition
- How engagement can protect your brand and projects
- How and when to conduct proper social risk due diligence assessments including stakeholder research
- Leveraging social data to better understand salient risks to the business (e.g. reporting metrics such as CSRD and CSDDD)
- How to understand environmental justice and its influence on community involvement
- Tools to use for effective engagement
- Lessons learned from other industries
ERM Article
Data centers are essential to all industries, serving as the engine for managing, processing and storing increasing volumes of data and driving technological innovation around the globe. However, increasingly, data center developments are facing opposition from host communities and other stakeholders – for example, due to potential negative impacts on the environment, loss of land, rising electricity costs, viewshed disruption and lack of direct employment opportunities. To manage these risks more effectively, data center operators and developers need to invest in social performance as a strategic enabler of shared value.
