Posted by Hong Kong: Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) has said that it will be water-positive (water+) by 2030, as part of its water commitment and sustainability plans. AWS will be water positive by 2030 and return more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations.
The company also announced its 2021 global water use efficiency (WUE) metric of 0.25 litres of water per kilowatt-hour, demonstrating AWS’s leadership in water efficiency among cloud providers.
As part of this new commitment, AWS will report annually on its WUE metric, new water reuse and recycling efforts, new activities to reduce water consumption in its facilities, and advancements in new and existing replenishment projects.
“Water scarcity is a major issue around the world and with today’s water positive announcement we are committing to do our part to help solve this rapidly growing challenge,” said Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS.
“In just a few years half of the world’s population is projected to live in water-stressed areas, so to ensure all people have access to water, we all need to innovate new ways to help conserve and reuse this precious resource,” added Selipsky.
“We know there is more we can do. We are committed to leading on water stewardship in our cloud operations, and returning more water than we use in the communities where we operate. We know this is the right thing to do for the environment and our customers,” emphasized Selipsky.
AWS has been driving four key strategies in pursuit of becoming water+ by 2030: improving water efficiency, using sustainable water sources, returning water for community reuse, and supporting water replenishment projects.
It also announced new replenishment projects in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States to bring much-needed clean water to communities around the world.
Data centres and cloud providers have come under scrutiny in recent years for their enormous consumption of energy, water and fuel as well as a very high level of heat emissions into the environment.