“Tucked beside a northern Virginia suburb, an experiment is underway to see if one of the oldest building materials on the planet can help Microsoft meet its ambitious climate goals.

Microsoft is building its first datacenters made with superstrong ultra-lightweight wood in a bid to slash the use of steel and concrete, which are among the most significant sources of carbon emissions.

A wood datacenter may sound strangely old-fashioned, if not improbable. But Microsoft engineers have developed a hybrid approach using cross-laminated timber, or CLT, a fire-resistant prefabricated wood material that will enable the company to reduce the use of steel and concrete. The hybrid mass timber, steel and concrete construction model is estimated to significantly reduce the embodied carbon footprint of two new datacenters by 35 percent compared to conventional steel construction, and 65 percent compared to typical precast concrete.”

From Microsoft.