Nature Lies at the Very Foundation of Tech Growth

Tech may dazzle with its futuristic glow, but its roots are sunk deep into the natural world. From thirsty data centers to mineral-hungry semiconductors, the industry’s survival and growth are inseparable from nature’s health. The future of tech isn’t just about innovation — it’s about regeneration. Nature is non-negotiable.

Whether the apparently-ethereal cloud computing running our lives or the dizzying news publicity of artificial intelligence taking shape to transform our future, technology often seems to be in a completely different world to the realities of the material realm. It is an alluring myth, one that too many in the C-suite apparently feel very comfortable with.

However, we should never forget the bytes and pixels and face a very simple, inconvenient truth: the industry, in all of its largesse and varied might, including semiconductor manufacturing, hardware development, data centres, and AI, is not only entwined with nature but directly and deeply relies on it. This is not a secondary CSR effort, this is a precondition that cannot be avoided to keep the growth going – nature is the very bedrock supporting and underpinning the global economy.

Nature and the Deep Roots of Technology

A giant within this economy is the tech industry, which taps nature directly and often, blindly. There is more to the obvious buzz of a server farm and the vast webs of upstream supply chains. The tech industry is dealing with massive water and energy requirements, never mind silicon and the other necessary minerals mined out of the very earth that constitute the physical life blood of our global digital village.

Consider water, as an example. One data center, such as one supporting a Netflix marathon or a company running extensive analytics, can consume up to 2.5 billion litres of water per year – or about 1,000 Olympic-sized swimming-pools worth. The procedures that necessitate the manufacture of semiconductors too are outrageously water-intensive and utilize 2.5 to 5.5 times as much water as other heavy industrial plants. Even the fact the industry needs reliable climate conditions, intact land, and predictable weather for its business and supply sales – all of which are serviced by healthy ecosystems – is an important, yet inadvertently under-acknowledged dependence. When any of these natural systems get into an hiccup, so does the fragile workings of the digital economy.

The Staggering Environmental Tab

This is not only a relation of dependence; but of great effect. In the absence of adequate control, this industry causes a significant loss of nature, which accumulates an environmental bill that will have to be paid. An example is the cooling systems used at data centers and semiconductor chip fabrication, which release hot water, adding to water shortages and ecological imbalance in the area. Additionally, an alarming 16% of mines of critical minerals, crucial raw materials in the creation of gadgets, are already in zones that already experience high or extreme water stress.

Then, there is the energy footprint and consequent greenhouse gas emissions from data centers and production facilities. One data center may demand more than 100 megawatts (MW) – enough energy to support 82,000 US residences. In addition, semiconductor production emits inordinately powerful greenhouse gases – perfluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons – gases much more potent in their heating capacity than carbon dioxide.

Pollution caused by mining and manufacturing which, as byproducts, create heavy metals, toxic chemicals and volatile organic compounds, continue to cast a long shadow on the environment. Tons of global e-waste, 62 million in 2022 alone, are also proving that a fundamental change is required in how we consume and discard our products.

The Imperative of a Nature-Positive Growth

These pressures will only be aggravated by the imminent explosion of artificial intelligence, whose environmental cost is expected to be nothing short of exponential. It is estimated that an AI data center alone might require 620 billion litres of water and more than 140 GW of power annually 2030 across the world. Denying these rising needs and neglecting the most basic reliance on nature, is a sure-fire way to trigger bottlenecks that cripple operations and lead to fragilized supply chains.

The fact that recent debate has been focused on more than just mitigation, on a more strategic approach: nature-positive action, is a welcome change. The Nature Positive Transitions program of the World Economic Forum, for example, is an active exploration into the various ways to achieve reversal of the loss of nature by 2030, given that this is both a business essential and major opportunity across the board (not merely an ethical pleasant-to-have). Even the existing market of a nature-positive tech sector is huge, worth $8.9 trillion as of 2024, exceeding the GDP of all but two nations.

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The technology industry has been offered a special challenge and, honestly, a tremendous responsibility. It is highly innovative, does so quickly and acts globally, placing it in the ideal position to drive this transition. Nature and tech are not competing in a zero-sum game. In fact, it is quite possible that the future development of the tech industry – its long-term license to operate, so to speak – is inseparable from the environment-friendly approach of nature-positive action and taking a lead in supporting it.Read: “Addressing the tech sector’s nature impacts and dependencies is a prerequisite for growth” from the World Economic Forum, here.