World’s leading cloud provider announces new
replenishment projects in India, the United Kingdom, and the United
States to bring much needed clean water to communities around the
world
Today at AWS re:Invent, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an
Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced it will be water
positive (water+) by 2030, returning 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 liters of
water per kilowatt-hour, demonstrating AWS’s leadership in water
efficiency among cloud providers. AWS is already well on the path
to becoming water+ and as part of this new commitment 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. To learn
more about AWS’s water+ commitment visit:
https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/water.
“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. While we
are proud of the progress we have made, 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.”
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.
Water efficiency: AWS is constantly innovating across its
infrastructure to reduce water consumption. It achieves its
industry-leading water efficiency by using advanced cloud services,
such as Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, to analyze real-time
water use and identify and fix leaks. AWS further improves
operational efficiency by eliminating cooling water use in many of
its facilities for most of the year, instead relying on outside
air. For example, in Ireland and Sweden, AWS uses no water to cool
its data centers for 95% of the year. AWS also invests in on-site
water-treatment systems that allow it to reuse water multiple
times, minimizing water consumed for cooling.
Sustainable sources: AWS uses sustainable water sources,
such as recycled water and rainwater harvesting, wherever possible.
Using recycled water, which is only suitable for a limited set of
applications such as irrigation and industrial use, preserves
valuable drinking water for communities. In Northern Virginia, AWS
worked with Loudoun Water to become the first data center operator
in the state approved to use recycled water in direct evaporative
cooling systems. AWS already uses recycled water for cooling in 20
data centers around the world and has plans to expand recycled
water use in more facilities as it works toward becoming
water+.
Community water reuse: After maximizing the use of water
in its data centers, the spent liquid is still safe for many other
uses, and AWS is finding more ways to return it to communities. In
Oregon, AWS provides up to 96% of the cooling water from its data
centers to local farmers at no charge for use in irrigating crops
like corn, soybeans, and wheat.
Water replenishment: To meet its water+ commitment, AWS
is investing in water replenishment projects in the communities
where it operates. Replenishment projects expand water access,
availability, and quality by restoring watersheds and bringing
clean water, sanitation, and hygiene services to water-stressed
communities. To date, AWS has completed replenishment projects in
Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa, providing 1.6 billion
liters of freshwater each year to people in those communities. For
example, in regions like Maharashtra and Hyderabad, India, and West
Java, Indonesia, AWS is partnering with global clean water
nonprofit Water.org to provide 250,000 people with access to safe
water and sanitation. Building on its existing portfolio of water
replenishment programs, AWS today announced several new projects,
which, once completed, will provide more than 823 million liters of
water to communities each year, including:
- India: AWS is providing continued support to WaterAid to
complete projects in Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh after they were
launched in March 2022. Since then, WaterAid has already completed
five piped water systems and new groundwater recharge projects,
which will supply 500 households–approximately 2,100 people–with an
estimated 47 million liters of water per year. WaterAid also
conducted education campaigns on water conservation in these
communities to educate residents on practical ways they can
conserve clean water, use rainwater harvesting, and conduct water
audits.
- UK: AWS is working with The Rivers Trust and Action for
the River Kennet to create two wetlands on a tributary of the River
Thames, one of the most important water catchment areas in the UK.
The wetlands will recharge over 587 million liters of groundwater
per year and improve water quality by receiving and treating
polluted runoff from farms and roadways, addressing growing water
scarcity and boosting water quality in the Thames River basin.
- US (California): Beginning this winter, AWS, the
conservation non-profit Freshwater Trust, and the
Omochumne-Hartnell Water District will recharge 189 million liters
of groundwater per year using winter water from the Cosumnes River.
This will allow water to gradually flow through the groundwater
table and back into the Sacramento and San Joaquin watershed,
increasing water flows during drier summer months. This lowers the
temperature of the river, improves salmon habitat, and increases
summer flows into the San Francisco Bay Delta, a critical water
supply source for the communities in the region.
Today’s announcement adds to Amazon’s commitment of $10 million
to Water.org to support the launch of the Water & Climate Fund,
which will deliver climate-resilient water and sanitation solutions
to 100 million people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This
donation will directly empower 1 million people with water access
by 2025, providing 3 billion liters of water each year to people in
water scarce areas.
“Our work with Amazon is supported by the shared belief that
solving the global water crisis is possible. We commend AWS for
committing to return more water than it uses by announcing Water+
by 2030,” said Matt Damon, co-founder of Water.org. Gary White,
Water.org CEO and co-founder, added, “Our collaboration with Amazon
and AWS already brings over 805 million liters of safe water to
communities around the world every year, and we are excited to
continue to work with Amazon to bring even more safe water to
families in need.”
“WateReuse Association celebrates AWS’s commitment to go water
positive by 2030, and for integrating water recycling as a key
component in its goal to protect water resources, local ecosystems,
and spur economic development,” said Patricia Sinicropi, executive
director of WateReuse Association. “The progress AWS has made in
using recycled water for cooling in 20 of their data centers
already shows great leadership for the industry. We look forward to
collaborating with Amazon to implement water reuse for the benefit
of their operations and for the communities in which they
operate.”
“AWS’s announcement to be water positive by 2030 demonstrates a
clear commitment to water stewardship and sustainability,” said
Mary Wenzel, managing director of corporate engagement at The
Nature Conservancy. “AWS’s support of our work has helped improve
water security for people and nature in water-stressed regions in
South Africa and Brazil. We look forward to continuing our
relationship with AWS to improve water quality and quantity by
protecting and restoring watersheds around the world.”
AWS will report annually on new innovations in water efficiency,
community reuse, water replenishment projects, and other activities
on its path to achieving its water+ commitment. A full overview of
how AWS will meet water+ by 2030 is in the methodology, available
here: https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/water
More information on AWS Water+ can also be found on at Amazon’s
Water Stewardship in Data Centers:
https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/water
About Amazon Web Services
For over 15 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most
comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud offering. AWS has been
continually expanding its services to support virtually any cloud
workload, and it now has more than 200 fully featured services for
compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine
learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things
(IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR
and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and
management from 96 Availability Zones within 30 geographic regions,
with announced plans for 15 more Availability Zones and five more
AWS Regions in Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, and
Thailand. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing
startups, largest enterprises, and leading government
agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more
agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit
aws.amazon.com.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather
than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to
operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to
be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer,
and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click
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