Near a datacenter in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, more than 230 acres are protected from development. There are eight new acres of wetlands as a habitat for frogs, fish and bugs, more than three miles of walking trails and restored streams that flow into lakes. 

“I think this is a huge benefit,” says Alex Gottschalk, county administrator. “Our lakes and waterways are pretty much our signature selling point. People want to enjoy them, whether that’s locals or tourists coming in.” 

Microsoft began applying nature-inspired solutions to restore and enhance natural ecosystems — an example of a practice known as biomimicry — at a datacenter in the Netherlands in 2022. It’s now expanding the practice to more than 20 datacenter sites across the United States and in Germany, as well as making it part of all new projects in the U.S. and a growing number around the world.  

Biomimicry involves using lessons from nature to create better solutions, whether for a datacenter’s cooling system or the surrounding landscape. Microsoft’s approach combines community input with ecological research and local understanding to map how the environment naturally works, then designing land, water and restoration plans that mimic and enhance those systems. 

“The best thing about it is that we don’t have a one-size-fits-all solution set; we actually have a menu of options that are going to be customized to each place,” says Kaitlin Chuzi, director of Global Land Strategy at Microsoft.  

“What works really well in the Netherlands is not the same as what’s going to make sense in Phoenix or Wisconsin or Ohio,” she says. “We’ve learned a lot to understand what’s important to the local communities there, and what’s important to the local ecology.” 

The native trees and shrubs of the pilot project near Middenmeer, Noord-Holland, have grown taller over the past four years. There’s a flower-rich pollinator habitat that lines the fence and highway, and an outdoor space for employees blends in with natural surroundings.  

At other datacenter sites, similar transformations are starting to take shape. 

Near Microsoft’s datacenter in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, an ongoing project in partnership with the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network is reestablishing open wetlands, native prairies and forested riparian buffers, which are strips of forested land adjacent to waterways designed to intercept pollutants, reduce erosion and maintain natural ecological functions.  

It will also restore previously straightened streams to their original, winding states to improve aquatic habitat, reduce erosion and filter runoff before it reaches Lake Michigan.  

At a datacenter in East Point, Georgia, a new project will include a walking trail, native plants and trees, including mature and faster growing varieties to further screen the campus and allow it to blend into the surrounding environment naturally.  

In Bedburg, Germany, the approach includes native habitat creation, wetland and stormwater features, ecological connectivity corridors and visual screening. 

Other ecosystem-restoring projects are tied to datacenters being built in Ohio, North Carolina and Wyoming. 

Chuzi’s team uses a tool called Ecosystem Intelligence that runs on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud to help measure success, quantifying ecosystem functions such as water quality, biodiversity and noise abatement. This helps to plan healthier, more resilient habitats. 

In 2022, Microsoft designated more than 230 acres of rural landscape for restoration and conservation as part of a new datacenter facility south of Chase City, Virginia, through partnership with the Chase City Conservancy Project. Three years later, they celebrated the grand opening. 

In addition to the restored streams, wetlands and tree plantings in Mecklenburg County, the project restored 185 acres of native pollinator habitats, including birds and butterflies, and planted more than 25,000 trees to establish 45 acres of forested buffers. 

Gottschalk says project leaders really listened to and engaged with people in the area to learn what they wanted. Environmental groups such as the Southern Piedmont Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists were pivotal in reshaping original plans, which resembled a more traditional recreation area rather than emphasizing biodiversity and habitat-focused conservation. 

“The thing to me that is really important about the conservancy is the fact that this community sentiment was reflected in the ultimate product,” Gottschalk says. “There was a lot of dialogue.”

What worked well in the initial project in the Netherlands, says BiomimicryNL co-founder Saskia van den Muijsenberg, was connecting with communities through projects such as “tiny forests” that provide students hands-on learning opportunities, biomimicry training for teachers, creating food forests — sustainable agricultural systems that mimic natural ecosystems — and educational walks.  

“It’s really important to share that biomimicry vision widely — not only the results, but the whole philosophy behind it,” she says. “Now we’re training others. It has really been foundational to building trust and the credibility.” 

Biomimicry is one of many environmental measures Microsoft implements in its datacenters.  

In Zaragoza, Spain, Microsoft datacenters will not have ongoing water consumption as they use a closed-loop system for cooling, continuously recirculating water filled initially during construction between servers and chillers to dissipate heat. This technology is already being used in datacenters in Wisconsin, Georgia and many other places and is part of the design for all new Microsoft datacenters designed since August 2024. 

In Newport, Wales, steel is being upcycled to build a new datacenter, comprising 74% of the structure.  

In Finland, a partnership with a local energy company will eventually supply 250,000 people and businesses with heat converted from hot air from datacenter cooling systems. 

Chuzi says there’s opportunity to build a future where technology and nature are no longer competing systems, but one interconnected landscape. 

“The most exciting future is one where technology doesn’t sit apart from nature but becomes part of how natural systems thrive,” she says.

Story published on Sept. 16, 2026.

All photos of Microsoft’s biomimicry pilot project at a datacenter near Middenmeer, Noord-Holland, by Britt Laske.

For more than a decade, Athima Chansanchai has covered people, projects and products throughout Microsoft. Previously, Athima wrote news and feature stories for MSNBC.com, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Baltimore Sun and The Village Voice. You can contact Athima on LinkedIn.