Amazon has been accused of intentionally hiding how much water its data centers use, according to a new leaked document.
What's happening?
As The Guardian reported, documents viewed by the news outlet and the nonprofit investigative journalism organization SourceMaterial revealed that executives at Amazon — which owns more data centers than even tech giants such as Microsoft and Google — chose not to disclose their data centers' water consumption to the public.
While Amazon said it has taken steps to improve water efficiency, there's no way to verify this information, as the company only reports its primary water use — which doesn't account for the water required to power data centers.
Furthermore, the documents only reveal how much water Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing platform, uses per year, rather than the company as a whole, which The Guardian reported consumed 10.5 billion gallons (39.7 billion liters) in 2021 alone.
Company officials said the decision was made to avoid backlash from the public about "committing to a goal for only a portion of Amazon's direct water footprint."
"It would be better if they could own up to it," an anonymous Amazon software developer told the news outlet. "Even if they said it was a low priority, at least that would be honest."
Why is Amazon's failure to disclose water use concerning?
Data centers and artificial intelligence applications require huge amounts of water to operate, with a report from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute noting that large data centers can use up to 5 million gallons a day.
If Amazon chooses not to share this information, it could negatively impact its reputation, especially if communities near its data centers are affected.
Earlier this year, The Guardian reported that Amazon is building data centers in some of the world's most water-stressed regions, including northern Spain, the southwestern United States, and Chile. This could deprive residential and agricultural areas of vital water sources, leading to strained local water supplies.
Residents living near data centers have complained about the noise and pollution they cause, and some have even sued major corporations like Google over the environmental damage from their construction.
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Definitely 👍 In 2023, a report from Business Insider revealed that Amazon's data centers in Virginia were using as much energy — mainly powered by dirty fuels — as New York City.
While dirty fuels like coal and natural gas still supply over 50% of U.S. data centers' electricity, according to the Pew Research Center, Amazon has made positive changes, matching 100% of its electricity use with renewable energy across all its operations.
What is Amazon doing to help the environment?
Amazon also announced it is using recycled water at more than 120 data center locations across the U.S., which is expected to conserve more than 530 million gallons of drinking water per year.
In addition to these sustainability efforts, it switched to paper fillers from plastic air pillows in most of its packaging last year and set a goal to have 100,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road by 2030.
According to ESG Today, Amazon Web Services is also more than halfway to its goal of returning more water to communities and the environment than it uses in its direct operations globally by 2030, as part of its Water Positive campaign launched in 2022, as The Guardian noted.
These are noteworthy environmental efforts, but ultimately, the company would benefit more by being transparent about water usage, as environmentalists explained.
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