Yondr has announced ‘Welcome Neighbour, Global Citizen’, a social impact strategy that places communities at the heart of data center development. By 2028, Yondr aims to be loved by local communities (a Welcome Neighbour) and recognised as a business that cares for people and the planet (a Global Citizen) with positive community impact at 100% of projects.

This comes at a time when data centers are becoming less mysterious and more visible to communities. By amplifying the voices of local people, businesses, charities and councils, we can build community empowerment into our projects.

For every site, Yondr will carry out a structured needs assessment, which involves engaging with a range of local stakeholders to build a picture of their unique priorities and aspirations. These findings will directly inform the social impact initiatives delivered in a community action plan.

Yondr is delivering this strategy through employability and STEM skills training, scholarship programmes, and apprenticeship schemes. These initiatives will be expanded on for future sites, in line with community needs assessment findings.

Yondr-ites are encouraged to support communities through unlimited volunteering, company-wide volunteering days, and employee match funding. Alongside this, Yondr will continue to form partnerships and donate to charities and educational institutions, fostering global and local relationships that increase positive impact.

Following work with an independent social impact consultant, Yondr mapped the risks, impacts and opportunities outlined in the company’s double materiality assessment, (conducted as part of Yondr’s journey towards CSRD alignment) with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to identify where the business is best placed to contribute.

Five SDGs were identified as priorities for community action planning. These include good health and wellbeing, decent work and economic growth, responsible consumption and production, climate action and partnerships for the goals.

The data center industry is experiencing a period of intense growth, where alongside development, social impact must scale too. Welcome Neighbour, Global Citizen unifies work already being done at Yondr – including Yondr Serve, the Yondr scholarship programme and the Digital Futures Programme. Anna McSweeney, Sustainability Manager, had this to share on the strategy:

‘Our values are at the heart of everything we do; we listen deeply, embrace honesty, use creativity to solve problems and always strive to create meaningful change. These values naturally underpin our social impact strategy, bringing about an exciting opportunity to meaningfully engage with the communities we are fortunate to work in. We strive to deliver positive change with communities, supporting their distinct priorities and aspirations.’