Powering Progress: How Community Benefits Agreements Can Drive Responsible Data Center Development

The pace and scale of data center development is overwhelming traditional policy playbooks, with developers engaging in opaque, breakneck negotiations with authorities. Communities, in response, are showing greater levels of resistance. Drawing from existing research and lessons learned from WRI case studies of benefits-sharing agreements, this resource proposes guidelines to help local governments and communities negotiate with developers in ways that protect communities and advance long-term prosperity. It explains how community benefits agreements (CBAs) require early, transparent, and continuous engagement across all states of data center development and operations; that effective agreements combine harm mitigation with the delivery of benefits; that such agreements require strict monitoring tools and enforcement; how CBAs are a catalyst for moving communities from reactive bargaining to proactive governance; and more.

Although intended for policymakers and public representatives, there are important lessons here for strategy professionals who are exploring CBAs for large projects.