Data Holdings Highlighted on WKBT News in La Crosse as Sustainable Data Center

Wisconsin’s data center momentum continues to build, and Data Holdings stands out as a model of responsible, community driven digital infrastructure.

When communities consider welcoming a data center, environmental impact is often one of the first concerns. Water consumption, energy use, and long-term sustainability expectations all factor into public discussions.

At Data Holdings, sustainability isn’t an afterthought—it’s part of the original engineering blueprint. Built by the Forest County Potawatomi Community 13 years ago, Data Holdings, a subsidiary of, Potawatomi Ventures was intentionally designed to minimize environmental impact to keep energy use low.  

Ryan Brooks, CTO and GM of Data Holdings, recently spoke with Brooklyn Heyn from WKBT News 8 Now to discuss how Data Holdings was purpose built from day one. “Early in a data center design, you need to make the decision, am I going to evaporate municipal drinking water and use municipal drinking water to cool a data center or am I going to use conventional mechanical chilling. Data Holdings chose the latter – has much less of an environmental impact,” he said.

One of the most critical early design choices was the decision not to use evaporative cooling that consumes municipal drinking water. Instead, Data Holdings employs conventional mechanical chilling, a method that uses no municipal drinking water and therefore  minimizes environmental impact.

This approach, paired with Wisconsin’s naturally cold climate, allows the facility to operate efficiently year-round while keeping energy use low. It’s a powerful example of how the right engineering choices can reduce a data center’s footprint while maintaining top tier performance.

Tune in to the segment to hear more about Data Holdings and potential data centers in Wisconsin from Ryan Brooks.