Data Center Groups Push School Programs to Polish Image

Data center companies and trade groups are running school programs, distributing children's books and organizing field trips to improve the industry's image amid community pushback, according to WIRED. The nonprofit 7x24 Exchange International recommends a children's story titled What is a Data Center?, which features a honey badger named Honey touring a data center with a worker named Oliver.

7x24 Exchange also promotes "International Data Center Day" and offers schools crossword puzzles, coloring pages, an evaporation-themed science project and print-out activities. The group additionally promotes data center-themed children's books, including one with a robot named JB, one about Two Brothers who save the internet, and Polly Packet's Precious Payload.

7x24 Exchange has visited or organized at least a half-dozen K-12 events at schools across the US this year. In Minnesota, the group took Fridley High School students on a field trip to a local Cummins diesel power generation facility.

Sabey, which operates seven US data centers, hosted field trips for Washington high schoolers, including Eastmont High School students in May, Manson School District students in January and Quincy High School students last October.

In May, the Potomac chapter of AFCOM sponsored Memorial Day-themed flag-making kits for 3,100 first graders across 37 schools in Loudoun County, Virginia, along with a card on the data center industry's local economic impact. Since 2025, at least eleven companies and industry groups have hosted student field trips to local data centers, according to WIRED's tally of public blogs and social posts.