Google commits to replenish more water than it uses by 2030

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Dive Brief:

Google announced a goal to replenish more water than it uses by 2030, along with other water stewardship targets on Wednesday, as the tech giant looks to lower the water footprint of its data centers whose demand has increased in tandem with artificial intelligence.
Google also announced it was investing $17 million into water stewardship projects across seven states, according to a company blog. The company is also reviewing more than 700 projects submitted through a request for information for replenishment projects, from which it will identify early-concept projects that are eligible for co-funding and can come online before 2030.
Google’s commitment to become “water positive” by the end of the decade puts it on par with competitors and fellow hyperscalers Amazon, Meta and Microsoft who each have their own goals of replenishing more water than they consume by 2030.

Dive Insight:

U.S. data centers directly consumed 66 billion liters of water in 2023, and hyperscale data centers are expected to use between 60 and 124 billion liters of water through direct consumption by 2028, according to a 2024 report from the University of California Berkeley Lab. The report found that U.S. data centers indirectly used nearly an additional 800 billion liters of water from electricity use in 2023.

“Data centers are the nerve centers of the digital world … As we grow our data center footprint to support these services, we recognize that how we build is just as important as what we build,” Google Vice President of Global Infrastructure Bikash Koley and Head of Infrastructure Strategy and Sustainability Ben Townsend wrote in the June 3 blog.

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