Amazon vows to replenish all the water it uses for data centres

Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud-computing provider, is promising by 2030 to replenish the water its massive data centres consume, the latest environmental pledge from the internet giant.

Parent company Amazon.com said in a statement Monday it’s supporting efforts to replenish groundwater in California, the UK and India to offset the water the company’s cloud centres use.

Google, which has vowed to offset 120 per cent of its water usage, revealed last week that its global data centres consume 4.3 billion gallons of water a year. Microsoft has already committed to replenish more water than it consumes by the end of the decade.

As announced by #AWS CEO @aselipsky, we’re pledging to be water positive by 2030 to help address the issue of water scarcity.

Learn how we're partnering with global nonprofits to replenish water-stressed areas & return water to communities. ➡️ https://t.co/k6UAWEN7VD #reInvent

— Amazon Web Services (@awscloud) November 28, 2022

Data centres use a considerable amount of electricity and water to cool the racks of servers and computers. While Amazon and its competitors have disclosed more of their energy footprints, they have been less willing to share how much water they use. That’s caused political tension in areas facing droughts.

AWS declined to share the total gallons it consumers, but reported that in 2021 it used a quarter litre of water for every kilowatt-hour of electricity at its data centres. That metric is the best reflection of water efficiency, said Will Hewes, global water lead for AWS.

Right now, AWS said it relies on recycled water for 20 of its data centres, including two in drought-stricken California, but it’s challenging to expand that number because re-using water is often tricky in regions where utilities aren’t set up for the practice. “Water is complicated,” Hewes said.

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