Meta Mass Timber: A Sustainable Future in Construction

As part of a growing shift toward sustainable construction, Meta has started building with mass timber at its data center campus in Aiken, South Carolina. The material is being used in administrative buildings. This marks the company’s latest move toward reducing its carbon footprint in tech infrastructure.

Expansion Across Multiple Locations

Meta plans to extend the use of mass timber in 2025 at additional sites, including:

Cheyenne, Wyoming, in collaboration with Fortis Construction and Mercer Mass Timber
Montgomery, Alabama, with Hensel Phelps and Binderholz leading the implementation

The company is not limiting this approach to offices only. It intends to incorporate mass timber into storage buildings and even the halls that house servers. This signals a notable shift in how data facilities are designed and built.

Interior view of mass timber structure at Meta’s administrative building in South Carolina data center — An interior glimpse of Meta’s administrative facility in Aiken, showcasing mass timber integration as part of a broader shift toward sustainable tech environments.

Emphasis on Low-Carbon Construction

Meta has previously used low-carbon concrete across several projects and aims to add near-zero-emission steel to its future developments. These efforts reflect a larger design strategy focused on reducing the environmental impact of large-scale tech buildings.

Clean Energy for AI Growth

In parallel with material innovations, Meta has secured nuclear and geothermal energy deals in Illinois and New Mexico. These deals aim to power the increasing demands of artificial intelligence development.

Close-up image showing the surface of mass timber used in Meta’s construction projects — A detailed view of the engineered timber now being piloted by Meta to reduce carbon emissions across its data infrastructure in the US.

Global Infrastructure Expansion

This architectural transition is unfolding alongside a major global expansion. Meta recently announced:

A $10 billion data center in Louisiana
An $800 million project in Indiana
The cancellation of two Danish projects to reallocate resources toward AI
And plans for a 50,000-kilometer subsea cable linking Brazil, India, South Africa, and the US — expected to be the longest of its kind in the world

Exterior shot of a mass timber building under construction at Meta’s Cheyenne data center — A construction site view of Meta’s Cheyenne project, where mass timber replaces traditional concrete and steel in the architecture of future data centers.

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

This article highlights Meta’s shift toward integrating mass timber in its data center architecture as part of a broader environmental strategy. The accompanying images reveal horizontally oriented structures with raw wood surfaces. These introduce unexpected warmth into tech-driven environments.
Still, the approach invites reflection on whether such material expression suits the infrastructural demands of data facilities. Can natural materials alone balance the tension between sustainability and performance?
Nevertheless, the adoption of low-carbon materials in highly technical projects signals a meaningful shift in design priorities. It moves toward more responsible architectural practices.

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