Global hyperscaler Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to be water positive, giving back more water than it uses directly, by 2030.
“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.
According to the tech giant’s CEO, in just a few years, half of the world’s population is projected to live in water-stressed areas.
The company’s move aims to support efforts in ensuring all people have access to water. “We all need to innovate new ways to help conserve and reuse this precious resource,” said Selipsky.
He added, “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 seeks to deliver on its water+ promise through four key strategies: improving water efficiency, using sustainable water sources, returning water for community reuse, and supporting water replenishment projects.
The company also announced its global water use efficiency (WUE) metric and it claims to have a global WUE figure of 0.25 litres of water per kilowatt-hour.
AWS also highlighted that it will annually report 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.
In addition, AWS reiterated that it is employing advanced cloud services, such as Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, to analyse real-time water use as well as identify and address problem areas.
