Episode description

JoAnn Garbin is the first returning guest on Lead with Purpose. She led innovation work on the data center of the future at Microsoft, co-authored the bestselling The Insider's Guide to Innovation at Microsoft, and now runs Regenerous Labs, where her team designs data centers meant to be positive for the company, the community, and nature.

Ron and JoAnn work through the fight happening in towns across the country. A Gallup survey found Americans would rather live near a nuclear plant than an AI data center, a result JoAnn calls a contradiction, since a gigawatt campus is asking for roughly what a nuclear plant provides. They dig into what water neutral actually means once you count power generation upstream and paved ground downstream, why eighty percent of a data center's water footprint sits in the grid rather than the building, and why software companies pretending to be power and construction companies keep learning expensive lessons.

Full Podcast Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple.

Ron Boire and The Upland Group
Website: https://www.ronboire.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RonBoire
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronboire/

JoAnn Garbin:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanngarbin/

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guide-Innovation-Microsoft-ebook/dp/B0DLX2PF5J