Finland launches criminal investigation into Google’s clearing of forest for datacentre site

Authorities allege company may have breached Finnish environmental laws by forgoing required impact assessment

Finnish ⁠police have launched a criminal investigation into possible breaches ⁠of the country’s environmental ⁠laws at the site of a planned Google datacentre in rural northern Finland.

Authorities allege that Tuike Finland, a Google subsidiary, cleared and drained 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest at the planned site in Muhos before environmental impact assessments required by Finnish law had been completed.

Like other Nordic countries, Finland is attractive to tech companies seeking to build datacentres because of its relative geopolitical stability and abundance of land, but also because its cool climate should allow them to cut energy costs.