What good looks like

How it works

This site is not against data centres, and it is not only for objectors. Developers, councils and communities can all use this list: as a standard to ask for, a checklist for a planning committee, or a public pledge a developer can choose to sign. Download it, adapt it, and use it in your own discussions.

The commitments, by issue

Water

1. Publish expected annual and peak-day water use, and the assumptions behind them, with the planning application.
2. Choose a cooling system that fits local water stress, and publish the reasons before the design is fixed.
3. Include the water used to generate the site's electricity in its environmental assessment.
4. Agree a published, enforceable drought arrangement that puts household and agricultural supply first.
5. Meter water use and publish the figures every year, independently checked.
6. Reuse treated water discharges and harvested rainwater where it is safe to do so, for example for irrigation.
7. Pay for any water network upgrades the development needs.

Power and the grid

1. Publish the grid capacity it will reserve, and the reinforcement works that depend on it.
2. Pay for the grid upgrades it triggers, rather than leaving them to other bill-payers.
3. Match its demand with new, additional renewable generation, not just certificates.
4. Report generator run-hours and emissions publicly every year.
5. Quantify the site's waste heat, and offer it to heat networks or growers, or explain publicly why that is not feasible.
6. Publish an independently verified whole-life carbon assessment, including hardware replacement.
7. Offer its waste heat to local heat networks where that is feasible.

Chemicals and the local environment

1. Publish an inventory of PFAS and other hazardous substances to be used or stored on site, including fire-suppression agents and cooling fluids.
2. Use non-PFAS alternatives where they exist, and publish the reasons where they are not used.
3. Publish a decommissioning plan for those substances, backed by financial security, before consent.
4. Assess and publish workers' exposure risks during installation, testing and maintenance.
5. Set night-time and low-frequency noise limits, with continuous monitoring published.
6. Investigate and remediate any existing contamination on the site before construction, and publish the results.

Who really benefits

1. Publish realistic permanent-staffing forecasts for years one, five and ten, separate from construction jobs, and report against them.
2. Commit to local recruitment and training targets.
3. Publish where the profits from UK operations are taxed.
4. Agree a lasting, published community benefit arrangement with the host community.
5. Do not occupy land allocated for higher-employment uses without saying why.

Who controls the data

1. State which countries' laws could compel access to data held on site.
2. Publish a regular transparency report of government requests for data, by country.
3. Offer public bodies options under UK or European control for sensitive public-sector data.
4. Tell customers about requests for their data wherever the law allows.
5. Disclose where backup copies of public-sector data are held.

Resilience and concentration

1. Publish how single points of failure in power, water and connectivity are avoided.
2. Assess cumulative effects together with other data centres in the same region.
3. Take part in regional monitoring of water and power demand.
4. Publish what would happen to dependent public services if the site failed.

AI and the precautionary principle

1. Say, at least by category, what the capacity will be used for (for example AI training or general cloud services).
2. Meet recognised security standards for AI-related infrastructure and report serious incidents.
3. Co-operate with public safety evaluation of frontier AI where relevant.

How decisions are made

1. Engage the community before the site is chosen, not after.
2. Publish any Environmental Impact Assessment screening request and opinion, and accept a full assessment for large schemes.
3. Where public land is involved, publish the principal lease terms.
4. Agree published host-community benefits before consent.

Who is affected?

1. Fund an independent regional assessment of effects on shared water, sewerage and grid infrastructure.
2. Consult across the whole catchment and grid area affected, not only immediate neighbours.
3. Publish annual water, power and wastewater figures.