Takeaways
Our data center fleet supports the global usage of our apps and technologies — running these facilities requires some water, which is a precious resource, so we use water responsibly and invest in improving water supply and quality in the communities in which we operate.
Our goal is to become water positive in 2030, meaning we’ll restore more water than we consume in the watersheds in which we operate.
We approach water stewardship in three pillars: 1) maximizing efficiency and minimizing water use, 2) supporting water restoration projects, and 3) being transparent with our water data.
Water is a shared and vital resource, and we approach water stewardship with the responsibility and technical expertise it deserves. Being good stewards of water is critical for our business, and it also benefits the communities where our data centers are located by enhancing water quality, boosting water supply and reliability, and promoting biodiversity.
Our Three Pillars of Water Stewardship
Our water stewardship efforts are rooted in three pillars which propel us toward our goal of becoming water positive in 2030, meaning we will restore more water than we consume in the watersheds in which we operate.
Maximizing efficiency and minimizing water use: We minimize water use in our data centers by design and use water as efficiently as possible in our operations.
Supporting water restoration projects: By supporting water restoration projects in the watersheds where we operate, we will restore 200% of water consumed in high water-stress regions and 100% in medium water-stress regions.
Being transparent with our water data: We publish and share detailed information in our annual sustainability report about our water withdrawals, restoration projects, and progress on our path to becoming water positive.
Maximizing Efficiency and Minimizing Water Use
Our industry-leading data centers are the backbone of our apps, technologies, and AI ambitions, providing the infrastructure that drives innovation. Advanced cooling systems are required to ensure that our data center hardware functions at the right temperature, and we sometimes need to use water to prevent equipment from overheating and operate within safety thresholds.
We determine the most efficient cooling technology for each data center by assessing a variety of local factors — location, climate, available resources, and technological needs — while also working in partnership with the local water utility.
Depending on local conditions, our typical data center design utilizes a direct-to-chip liquid, closed-loop cooling system with dry coolers. In these systems, a coolant is circulated through our data halls in a closed piped system to absorb the heat generated by our servers and hardware.
The heat is then removed by operating dry coolers that blow air over the pipes, carrying away excess heat. For these data centers, there is no operational water use in the cooling system and water use at the site is minimal and limited to domestic and janitorial needs, equipment cleaning, and fire protection.
Our Beaver Dam, Wisconsin data center will feature this closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry coolers, and the total estimated annual water use for the data center, once operational, is anticipated to be less than that of two full-service restaurants in a year.
As part of our broader water conservation efforts at our data centers, we install water-saving fixtures and appliances within the data center buildings and plant native or adaptive plant species to limit the need for irrigation water.
We also focus on conserving potable water during data center construction. For example, during the construction of our Kansas City, Missouri data center, we saved more than one million gallons of potable water by capturing and repurposing stormwater from onsite retention ponds to suppress dust during the site’s construction.
All of our operational data center buildings achieve LEED Gold certification, which means they meet very high standards for energy efficiency, clean and renewable energy, water conservation, supply chain responsibility, and recycling.
We also use AI to optimize data center cooling, reducing both energy and water use.
