Microsoft has come out on top in a new report comparing how the world’s largest technology companies integrate nature into their European data centre strategies.

The report, dubbed Europe’s data centres: The nature report card, is billed as the first scorecard to compare nature strategies across Europe’s data centres. Produced by Arbonics, it reviews European data centres linked to Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple, ranking approaches to land use, site design and ecosystem restoration – and estimating how much restoration would be required to balance each facility’s annual emissions.

The report’s central argument is that nature-first design is still not standard practice, despite the scale of development now underway. Alongside construction impacts, it says operational emissions should be treated as a recurring pressure that needs a proportional response – with operators restoring enough nature each year to compensate for their annual operational emissions.

A growing footprint, and uneven approaches

Arbonics frames its scorecard against rapid growth forecasts for the data centre sector, driven by AI and high-performance computing. The report cites projections that electricity demand could rise from 96 TWh in 2024 to 168 TWh by 2030 and 236 TWh by 2035 – a 150% increase in just over a decade – with Europe expected to remain one of the world’s largest regions for data centre electricity use.

While some operators are making high-profile commitments, the report argues that approaches to land, water and biodiversity remain inconsistent – and that the gap between ‘best practice’ examples and the wider market is still large.

Microsoft ranked highest overall in the scorecard, with the report stating the company now permanently protects 6,414 hectares of land, more than the 4,816 hectares it estimates are occupied by Microsoft’s global data centre portfolio, and has planted more than 77,000 trees through community projects. The report also highlights examples including native planting at Middenmeer in the Netherlands, tree planting in West Dublin, and riverbank restoration in Spain.

However, the report suggests the bigger question is what ‘enough’ looks like at sector scale, particularly as new hyperscale builds can involve land conversion, material-intensive construction and knock-on effects for local ecosystems.

What ‘proportional restoration’ could mean

To illustrate the scale of operational impact, the report uses forestry restoration as a reference pathway – arguing that trees can sequester carbon while supporting soils, water regulation and biodiversity.

It estimates that one year of operations at Meta’s Luleå data centre in Sweden would require restoring 3,350 hectares of forest, equating to planting 8.4 million trees, to compensate for emissions. For Google’s Hamina site in Finland, it estimates around 19.4 million trees would be needed for a single year, which it compares to an area large enough to cover the city of Paris.

“Data centre operators can help re-establish the ecosystem processes that support their infrastructure, creating long-term ecological value alongside their climate commitments,” said Lisett Luik, Co-Founder of Arbonics.

The report also places today’s expansion in a longer historical context, arguing that Europe’s past industrial growth came at a significant cost to nature. It says forests once covered roughly 80% of the continent, falling to less than half by the end of the seventeenth century – and suggests the next wave of growth, driven by AI, does not need to follow the same pattern.

To move from isolated projects to repeatable practice, Arbonics sets out four priorities for operators:

• Increase land restoration
• Prioritise brownfield over greenfield development
• Report biodiversity at site level
• Integrate nature-led design features, such as green roofs

Trends to watch in 2026

Looking ahead, the report argues that pressure on land, water and grid capacity will intensify as demand continues to climb. It also predicts water stewardship will become a more central concern, and that reporting will shift from carbon-led metrics towards ecological outcomes such as habitat and biodiversity restoration. Community trust, it adds, will increasingly influence where new facilities can be built.

“The conversation has been framed as a trade-off for too long: innovation versus conservation, progress versus protection. But that narrative no longer holds. Europe’s balance between digital progress and nature restoration will rest on the choices of a handful of major technology companies, and it’s crucial that they get it right,” added Luik.

For an industry already battling headwinds around planning, power availability and social licence, the report’s message is straightforward: if data centre development is going to accelerate, nature-led design and restoration will need to become part of the baseline – not an optional add-on.