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The Sierra Club is addressing the growing environmental demands of data centers in Arizona and across the country. In an effort to enlist community support and educate people about how the facilities affect the environment, the organization hosts monthly "action hours" online.

Arizona is in the midst of a massive data center construction boom. From a Google Cloud storage facility in Mesa to eight Compass data centers near downtown Phoenix, there are 160 facilities planned for Arizona, making it the seventh largest hot spot in the nation.

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Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club, said the race to keep up with data demand – and the centers being built to do it – puts a tremendous strain on the environment, utility companies and local communities.

"There's a lot of concern about what that is going to mean for infrastructure buildout, who's going to pay, how residential customers will be affected," Bahr outlined.

Data centers currently consume about 4 percent of the nation's energy, a figure expected to grow with the proliferation of artificial intelligence and cloud storage facilities.

Beyond a sharp increase in energy consumption, data centers also require a lot of water for cooling. Bahr argued the data storage sector is growing faster than existing infrastructure can keep pace.

"Yet, we want to invite in some of the thirstiest industries," Bahr noted. "Maybe we could consider something a little less harmful to our communities."

There are currently 29 data storage facilities under construction in Arizona, nearly all of them in the Phoenix metro area. Storage companies said they are trying to keep pace with increasing demand.