Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s largest cloud-computing provider under Amazon.com [AMZN:US], pledged to replenish all the water it uses for data centers by 2030, as reported by Yahoo on November 29. Specifically, AWS pledged to return more water to communities than what its direct operations consume by 2030. The water conservation plan will focus on AWS’s data centers in drought-prone areas such as California, South Africa, Indonesia, and India, involving measures of improving efficiency and recycling water for cooling systems. Although AWS has yet to share its total water usage, a report showed that the company used a quarter liter of water for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity at its data centers in 2021. The metric is the best reflection of water efficiency, citing Will Hewes. global lead of water sustainability at AWS. 

Amazon’s commitment follows similar initiatives conducted by its peers such as Microsoft Corp [MSFT:US] and Alphabet’s [GOOG:US] Google. Microsoft has promised to replenish more water than it consumes by the end of the decade, while Google also disclosed last week that its data centers across the world consume 4.3bn gallons (16.3bn liters) of water a year and vowed to offset 120% of its water usage. Data centers demand a huge amount of water and energy to cool computers. According to Bluefield Research, despite rising water utilization efficiency, water consumption of data centers across the world still increased from 195m gallons a day in 2015 to over 221m gallons a day in 2021.

Sources:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-vows-replenish-water-uses-172148315.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAxF0L_fpcFibpAJvSCX1AJSnbKqoiP3C5rczcPsB6ugp8a9I6Ud7gwc9qEtUTg7p80l1hgR6mJpDxHAT-yRn6CF2FkM3ehidx82K5FvliXHGp7CUkRfXmmeRPZaltO-YACQYOAAPyBk3D6vTmXyVn2c9EErl5z8pQcfh5kQuED_

https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazons-aws-aims-to-reduce-water-use-at-its-data-centers-11669677808