Steel and concrete, the traditional materials used in data center construction, are major carbon emitters, but in a move toward sustainability, Microsoft is testing fire-resistant cross-laminated timber (CLT) in its first wood-based data centers near a northern suburb of Virginia.
The company says this project is part of an “all hands on deck” effort to achieve the company’s ambitious climate goals of being carbon negative by 2030 and offsetting all emissions since inception by 2050.
While Microsoft has made progress toward this goal, indirect data center emissions – from material extraction, manufacturing and transportation – have increased 30.9% in three years.
A market mover
The use of CLT, in addition to concrete and steel, in the hybrid design is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 35% compared to traditional steel structures and by 65% compared to standard concrete.
Microsoft’s decarbonization efforts extend beyond this project, supported by the $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund, which has invested $761 million in scalable environmental projects to date.
Microsoft is working with green building materials companies, including Sweden’s Stegra, which is developing a hydrogen-based steel process that emits water vapor instead of carbon, reducing emissions by up to 95%. Microsoft is also working with Boston Metal, which uses renewable electricity to produce steel while generating oxygen instead of carbon dioxide.
To reduce dependence on traditional cement, Microsoft is working with companies like CarbonCure, which injects CO₂ into concrete, and Prometheus Materials, which makes carbon-free cement using microalgae. Microsoft plans to test Prometheus cement in its data centers in Virginia to test its durability.
“Microsoft is in a unique position precisely because they are so big,” said Thomas Hooker of Thornton Tomasetti, a structural engineering firm that works with Microsoft. “They can almost be like a market move and to some extent actually use some of these technologies more widely just because it’s a high priority for Microsoft.”