Meta Turns to Mass Timber for Lower-Carbon Data Center Construction

Meta is incorporating mass timber into its data center campuses as part of its effort to reduce construction-related emissions and achieve net zero emissions across its value chain by 2030.

The company said its first mass timber administrative building was erected at its Aiken, South Carolina, data center campus by DPR, using materials supplied by SmartLam. Additional mass timber buildings are planned at Meta’s Cheyenne, Wyoming, site with Fortis Construction and Mercer Mass Timber and at its Montgomery, Alabama, site with Hensel Phelps and Binderholz.

Meta also plans to incorporate mass timber into additional administrative buildings, warehouses, and critical data halls that house servers.

The company said scaling lower-carbon construction materials remains a challenge, but its mass timber pilot buildings could demonstrate approaches for reducing the embodied carbon associated with data center development.