By Carly Wishart – AirTrunk Managing Director, Corporate and International
From streaming and banking to healthcare and emergency services, people rely on digital services every day, often without thinking about the infrastructure behind them, like data centres.
But that is changing.
As data centres become more visible, expectations of our industry are rightly increasing.
At AirTrunk, we see that shift first-hand.
Communities want clear information about how data centres work, how they are planned and built, and the impacts they can have on local communities, including energy and water use; whether they affect household bills; and practical issues like traffic and congestion.
These are important questions, and they deserve clear answers and greater transparency from our industry.
So how do we strike the right balance between meeting growing demand, meeting community expectations, and doing so responsibly?
Our response has been to formalise a set of commitments that will guide how we operate across all of our markets moving forward.
Formalising these commitments gives our communities, customers, partners and employees clearer expectations of how we operate, and a stronger framework for accountability as our industry continues to evolve.
Our commitments focus on four key areas:
- Safely deliver critical infrastructure for everyday life: So the digital services relied on every day remain secure, resilient, and available when we need them.
- Be responsible users of energy and water: Continuing to improve how we use energy and water across our operations and contributing positively to the communities and environments where we operate.
- Be a good neighbour: Engaging openly with communities, reducing local impacts and working to make a positive contribution wherever we operate.
- Strengthen communities where we operate: Creating long-term value through local partnerships, jobs, and investment.
These commitments reflect the approach AirTrunk has taken since the beginning, and the standard we expect ourselves to keep improving against.
We won’t always get everything right. Expectations will continue to evolve, and there will be times where we need to listen more carefully, engage more openly, and do more to reduce impacts.
What matters is that we keep improving, remain accountable, transparent, and focused on continuous improvement for ourselves and our industry.
We know there is more to do.
That includes investing in more efficient technologies, supporting renewable energy and recycled water solutions, and working to improve outcomes for local communities in regions where we operate.
These commitments are intended to help guide that work.
Over the coming months, we will share more about the work already underway across these commitments, including where we’re making progress, where challenges remain and where we know we need to do more.
There will always be differing views about the role data centres play in local communities. The reality is that demand for digital infrastructure will continue to grow – driven by all of us.
Our responsibility is to ensure we build and operate that infrastructure responsibly, in partnership with local communities, and continue to earn trust through our actions.
You can read more about AirTrunk’s community commitments at: https://airtrunk.com/our-commitment-to-communities/