Microsoft using wetlands and native gardens to 'camouflage' 20-plus data center sites by blending them into nature

Microsoft’s “biomimicry” program is reshaping the land around its data centers with restored wetlands and native gardens to help the buildings blend into local ecosystems at 20-plus sites, reports The Verge. Critics question the company’s motives after recent energy deals, such as a 20-year deal inked in June to buy power from a planned Chevron gas plant in West Texas. Public Citizen’s Texas director, Adrian Shelley, called the plan “basically lipstick on a pig.”

Microsoft says the approach is now part of all new projects in the U.S. The goal is to blend “data centers into the natural landscape” at sites across the United States and Germany, gauging community input and using ecological research to map the local environment. Microsoft’s team uses a tool called Ecosystem Intelligence, which runs on Azure and scores various features of the site, including water quality, biodiversity, and noise abatement.

Solutions, according to Microsoft’s director of global land strategy, Kaitlin Chuzi, are customized to the …