Amazon has announced a new initiative aimed at addressing water sustainability in the era of artificial intelligence, unveiling the Water-AI Nexus Center of Excellence in collaboration with a coalition of water sector organisations and academic institutions.
The new centre will focus on two main areas: developing sustainable water practices to support the growth of AI infrastructure, and harnessing AI technology to help solve global water scarcity and management challenges.
Amazon’s partners in the initiative include the Water Environment Federation, the Water Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Leading Utilities of the World networking organisation. Together, the group will work on research, knowledge-sharing, and developing practical solutions to help the water and technology sectors manage growing pressures.
“Water utilities worldwide are facing unprecedented challenges from climate change and aging infrastructure, while simultaneously working to serve communities that depend on reliable, affordable water services,” said Howard Carter, president of the Water Environment Federation. “The Water-AI Nexus Center of Excellence will accelerate innovation by connecting water professionals with AI experts to develop solutions that benefit both sectors as well as the communities they serve.”
The project’s two-pronged mission is divided into “Water for AI” — which focuses on making water use in AI infrastructure more efficient — and “AI for Water”, which seeks to apply AI tools to address issues such as scarcity, distribution, and long-term water resource management.
The Water-AI Nexus will support a range of initiatives, including the creation of water use standards and best practices for the data processing sector, facilitating collaboration among utilities, researchers, and government bodies, and enabling knowledge exchange across industries.
As part of the launch, the centre has also published a roadmap for data centre operators. It sets out four key principles: strategic site design and location, optimising operational efficiency, sourcing water sustainably, and replenishing water to return it to local communities.
“We believe responsible innovation means both addressing our water footprint and using technology to solve global water challenges,” said Beau Schilz, water principal at Amazon Web Services. “At Amazon, we strive to reduce water use in our operations, which include logistics sites such as fulfillment centers, as well as in our corporate offices and grocery stores. We’re also committed to returning more water to communities than we use across our data centers by 2030—being a founding leader of the Center of Excellence will help not only Amazon in its goals, but others as well, as we aim to collectively transform water management worldwide.”
The scale of water usage in the data centre industry highlights the urgency of the initiative. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), a typical 100MW data centre in the United States consumes around two million litres of water per day. Globally, data centre water usage currently exceeds 560 billion litres annually, a figure the IEA predicts could climb to 1,200 billion litres by 2030.
Amazon has already begun introducing new measures to reduce water consumption. In June, it announced plans to expand the number of facilities using treated wastewater for cooling from 20 to 120 locations.
Other major tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Meta, are also investing heavily in water sustainability programmes, with all three pledging to achieve water positivity by 2030.
