Rethinking AI’s Physical Footprint

What happens when grid power can't keep up with AI's appetite for energy, and how are construction leaders innovating around this crisis? As Vice President of Sustainability at Clayco, Alana Spencer oversaw decarbonization across 100+ projects annually, including 57 active data centers totaling three gigawatts of capacity, focusing on the intersection of AI infrastructure growth and climate goals. Today she is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Alma Environmental Partners, supporting the built environment and organization on their sustainability journeys. Spencer argues that "passion alone cannot get you there" in sustainability work—you need technical expertise to create business cases and implement solutions at scale. In This Episode: (00:00) Clayco's sustainability mission (04:02) Alana's story - from trading firm to sustainability leadership (08:59) Age of Adoption story and AI's impact on construction (13:36) Testing lower-carbon concrete with major tech companies (16:31) Data center energy challenges and infrastructure solutions Share with someone who would enjoy this topic, like and

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Rethinking AI’s Physical Footprint is an episode from Raising Your Antenna by Keith Zakheim.

This episode is 00:22:03 long.

This episode was published on Aug 19, 2025.

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