
Switch operates its SUPERNAP data center campuses — including the flagship Las Vegas campus, one of the largest data center ecosystems in the world at over 3 million square feet — using 100% recycled effluent water for all cooling operations. Switch employs no potable water for cooling, draws nothing from Lake Mead, and has committed to a net 2× water positive strategy: replenishing and restoring more than twice the water it uses operationally over the coming decade. Its proprietary water processing technology recycles water within its systems, eliminates chemicals from cooling loops, and has generated documented savings of more than 155 million gallons over three years. Switch’s approach is particularly significant because it operates in Southern Nevada — the most water-stressed major data center market in the United States — and has helped drive a 2024 Southern Nevada legislative ban on evaporative cooling systems that now applies to all new data center construction in the region.
Fairfax County, Virginia: The Compliance Framework
Fairfax County, Virginia, adopted on September 10, 2024 what is widely regarded as the most comprehensive data center noise and siting ordinance in the United States. It was developed after months of contentious public hearings, [...]
Immersion & Liquid Cooling: The Near-Silent Data Center
The fundamental source of data center community noise complaints is air movement: the high-speed fans required to push large volumes of air through server racks and exhaust heat to the exterior. These fans are noisy [...]
Amazon Web Services Great Oak Retrofit
The Amazon Great Oak data center complex in Prince William County, Virginia, represents the most thoroughly documented noise response case in U.S. data center history. It is not a success story without complications — and [...]



