In recognition of World Water Day on March 22, Google released its 2025 Water Stewardship Project Portfolio and announced new initiatives and collaborations to help safeguard the world's water supply and support global agriculture.
The United Nations' World Water Day, held every March 22, raises awareness concerning global freshwater availability.
Google's plans add to the goal it set in 2021 to replenish 120% of the water used in its offices and to cool data centers by 2030.
Some of the ways Google said it would do that included "working with the Colorado River Indian Tribes project" to decrease the water taken from Lake Mead, "installing rainwater harvesting systems" in Dublin, Ireland, and "investing in efforts to remove water-thirsty invasive species" in Los Angeles.
In the project portfolio, Google reported that since then, it has joined 112 initiatives it predicts could reproduce 8 billion gallons of water per year by 2030.
According to ESG Dive, "Google said in the March 22 release that the projects collectively replenished around 4.5 billion gallons of water in 2024 alone."
The second part of this announcement concerned new partnerships to assist agricultural areas. The four initiatives in France, Taiwan, California, and Chile all seek to create new, efficient ways of collecting or supplying water for irrigation.
This will support the farming industry and the people whose livelihoods depend on it, ultimately keeping the food supply steady and lowering prices for average consumers.
The USDA Economic Research Service explains that "irrigated crop production helps to support local rural economies in many areas of the U.S., and contributes to the Nation's livestock, food processing, transportation, and energy sectors."
This action on Google's part is indicative of a growing number of brands that seek to lower the impact they have on the environment by launching eco-friendly initiatives.
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Kate Brandt, Google's chief sustainability officer, ended on a pensive note in her 2021 blog post outlining Google's plans.
"When it comes to protecting the future of our planet and the resources we rely on, there's a lot to be done," Brandt said. "We'll keep looking for ways we can use our products and expertise to be good water stewards and partner with others to address these critical and shared water challenges."
Hopefully, Google is headed in that direction.
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