Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a formal study of a project's likely effects on water, air, noise, ecology and communities. Regulators require it before large developments such as hyperscale data center campuses can proceed. Its outcome and public consultation can add months to a schedule and, if skipped, can stop a project: in September 2026 West Java ordered BDx to halt its 640 MW CGK4 campus eight days after groundbreaking because the environmental approval (AMDAL in Indonesia) and building permit had not been issued. For multi-hundred-megawatt sites, water abstraction, cooling-system choice, backup-generator emissions and wastewater are the usual focus, which is why developers increasingly disclose closed-loop cooling and water-use figures up front.