Princeton University, speak out against the South Brunswick data center

Across the country, data centers are driving a rise in utility prices, imposing a massive demand on our electricity grid and contributing to increased noise pollution in communities large and small. They are also projected to increase both our yearly consumption of fresh water and our carbon emissions. In short, data centers are bad news: for the environment, and for all of us. 

So it might shock you to learn that one is rising up in Princeton’s backyard. 

Right this moment, a data center is being built a mere 10-minute drive from our main campus. The South Brunswick data center on Route 1 will rely on 20 diesel generators for backup power and store an estimated 400,000 gallons of diesel fuel on site. But to term these generators as “backups” is deceptive when their operation will not really be an exception or an emergency measure. 

As Princeton’s mayor and Council explained in a statement to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, “the 20 generators, misleadingly characterized as ‘minor sources’ of emissions, will run not only during power outages but also for routine testing and during periods of peak or critical demand … operating the generators will make the site a major source of emissions.” Diesel exhaust particles and gases are linked to asthma and other respiratory health issues: When running, the generators of the South Brunswick data center will send these harmful substances across Princeton’s municipal boundaries. 

Fortunately, there is something that the University can do about it. Princeton University should submit a statement to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection urging them to deny the permit for the center as it runs in its current form. 

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is currently considering whether to grant an air permit to the data center, which will be located on a site that was owned by Princeton University until 2024. The University may no longer own the land, but that doesn’t mean it should stand by and remain passive to the approval of an industrial project whose generators will threaten the health of all those local to the area. Air doesn’t care about municipal boundaries or campus borders; the emitted particulates and gases will affect our University community, from the student body to faculty and staff to the foxes and squirrels that live on our campus. 

It is understandable that universities sometimes try to skirt political hot topics to evade unwelcome attention from the media or the government. But the demand for the regulation of data centers is a rare bipartisan issue, with seven in 10 Americans opposing constructing AI data centers in their local area. Speaking out against the construction of the data center is not a political statement: It’s about standing in opposition to a direct threat to the health and safety of our community. The Princeton Undergraduate Student Government and the Princeton Municipality have both published statements to the NJDEP opposing the air permit. It’s time for the University to follow their lead.

Data center construction is certainly not unique to the Princeton area. But even if we consider them an unavoidable manifestation of a technologically developing society, that doesn’t mean we can’t push for their being held to higher environmental standards. We can hold data centers accountable for generating and using electricity without poisoning our air and water, and stand against their receiving air permits until they do so. 

Princeton University should echo the Princeton Council in asking the Department of Environmental Protection to “take every possible measure to ensure that this data center does not become an environmental blight on our region.” That means not granting an air permit until the plan is adapted with cleaner backup energy generation solutions.  

Until Oct. 7, the public also has the opportunity to submit written comments to the NJDEP expressing concerns about the data center. The agency will issue a final decision soon after the deadline about whether or not it will grant the permit, or set other environmental safeguards that will need to be met before the permit can be issued. 

Princeton prides itself on its policy of institutional restraint. But that doesn’t absolve the University of an obligation to speak out against a direct threat to the public health of its community. In times of trouble for higher education, the University doesn’t hesitate to turn to its community to stand up for Princeton. Now, we need Princeton to stand up for us. 

In his 2026 Commencement address, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 quoted former University President Robert Goheen ’40 GS ’48: “Courage, with temperance, is always needed to hold the university to its role and mission [...] the university as a human institution can be confident not only of its past but of its present and future, ready to stand up for its aims and basic commitments, bold to make its voice heard in the land.” 

As the data center rises, we’re looking towards the future not merely of the University itself, but of the land it sits on and the entire community to which it belongs. Protecting that should be its most basic commitment. 

Princeton, it’s time to stand up with your students and their health: Say no to the South Brunswick data center. 

Elif Cam ’30 is a contributing Opinion writer from Princeton, N.J. Since you read this far, she thinks you might as well take a minute to submit a comment to NJDEP opposing the South Brunswick data center air permit. She can be reached by email at elif[at]dailyprincetonian.com.