Water Policy Specialist Peyton McCauley, Director Melissa Scanlan, and UWM-SFS Master’s student Dan McLennon recently explored private environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting to assess water consumption of AI and data centers and discuss the limitations.
Article Summary:
- Companies are using ESG reporting to provide transparency regarding sustainability to
stakeholders. - ESG reporting is part of private environmental governance, driven by NGOs rather than
governments. - They used used ESG reports to shed light on the environmental impacts of AI and data centers.
- The nature of ESG reporting being implemented by private governance limits
transparency and access.
Peyton McCauley, Dan McLennon & Melissa K. Scanlan, Inside ESG Reporting: Thirsty Data Centers Reveal Limits to Transparency, American Bar Association, (Mar. 5, 2025).
Read the full article here: Inside ESG Reporting: Thirsty Data Centers Reveal Limits to Transparency — American Bar Association