As companies race to build data centers, communities are asking tougher questions about the resources those facilities require and what the tradeoff is for residents.
Concerns about electricity demand, water use, land, utility costs and noise have turned projects into reputational decisions. It’s a push-and-pull that shows a growing problem data center developers are facing across the country.
For communicators, it’s not about explaining AI infrastructure better to avoid backlash, said Gregg Feistman, adjunct professor at Temple University.
“The problem is the execution,” he said. “Companies haven’t invested enough in relationships with the communities where they are building data centers.”
If communications teams join the conversation only after a project is moving toward approval, they may have little ability to address the issues driving opposition, he said.
Get comms involved before plans are set in stone
Feistman said pushback grows when organizations don’t understand what residents care about.
“It comes down to the developers and the AI labs planting a building on a lot of land without asking the local communities, ‘What are your concerns?’” he said.
Shrita Hernandez, a comms executive who has focused on crisis communications, public trust and institutional reputation, and will be joining Ragan’s Future of Communications Conference this fall, said communications needs to be involved before a company reaches that point.
Communicators can help balance the business case with community concerns, but their role isn’t to make the project seem more appealing.
“Their job is not to persuade a community to accept the business case,” Hernandez said. “It’s to help the leaders understand that the business case is incomplete if it ignores the conditions under which the project must operate.”
That means comms teams need to bring stakeholder questions into planning meetings.
How much water will the facility use? What will its electricity demand be? Could residents pay more for power? What infrastructure will need to be upgraded? How will land use change? What happens during a drought or power shortage? How many permanent jobs will remain after construction?
“Those are substantive concerns,” she said. “They’re not messaging problems.”
If a project creates a legitimate cost or risk for residents, PR cannot solve that with a stronger narrative, Hernandez said. But comms can make sure leadership understands the concern while there is still time to change the plan.
Map the people who can affect the project
Hernandez said teams should scenario plan before opposition becomes organized.
For a data center, this means really looking at the ways the project could unfold and understanding the groups that could influence the outcome.
“Who are the influencers?” she said. “Who are the people that you’re going to have to have structured, clear, direct, open and ongoing conversations with?”
Those groups might include residents, elected officials, utilities, environmental organizations, business groups and employees who live nearby, she said.
Communicators should work with these groups or other front-facing teams to identify who has built trust already and who has the most influence, Hernandez said. A stakeholder map should exist before the company needs public support.
A town hall needs to involve actual listening
Companies also need more direct engagement with residents, Feistman said.
“If you want to reduce (their) concern, be open and honest with it,” he said. “Have the town hall meetings, have more than one, and listen to the communities and what their concerns are.”
For example, Pennsylvania now requires community outreach early enough to allow meaningful public input on major design decisions. This is different from holding a meeting after decisions have already been made, Feistman said.
A comms team should also be able to show what happens after residents raise concerns, he said.
Did the company change how it will handle water? Did it add noise mitigation? Can it explain who will pay for grid improvements?
Use feedback to determine where transparency or mitigation is needed and what the company is genuinely willing to change, Hernandez said.
“And if the answer is nothing, communicators shouldn’t manufacture community trust or the perfect message,” she said.
Give leadership the information it may not have
This is where communications can have the most influence, Feistman said.
Comms teams often have access to information that engineers, developers or executives may not, including local sentiment, media coverage, community history, stakeholder relationships and the language people are using to describe the project. Use these insights to help leaders connect the dots for their communities in language that shows understanding and transparency.
“I think our job (as communicators) is still to speak truth to power,” Feistman said. “Let’s just not announce that we can do it. Let’s announce why, what it’s for, what the concerns are. Give the whole context to whatever it is you’re talking about.”
