Hyperscale cloud provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) is committing to be a water-positive company by 2030, which means AWS will return more clean water to nearby communities than its cloud infrastructure and operations consume.

"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," AWS CEO Adam Selipsky explained. "While we are proud of the progress we have made, we know there is more we can do. ... We know this is the right thing to do for the environment and our customers."

AWS reported its 2021 global water usage effectiveness (WUE) metric was .25 L/kWh, where an optimally efficient WUE is 0. This is the first time the cloud giant has shared this metric publicly, and it plans to report WUE on an annual basis going forward.

This water positive commitment will be worked toward with four main strategies – increase water efficiency and WUE, utilize sustainable water sources, return water for community reuse, and invest in water replenishment and restoration projects.

The provider is increasing its use of sustainable water sources like recycled water, which is treated sewage that can be used for limited irrigation or industrial purposes. AWS currently has 20 data centers using recycled water for cooling purposes, allowing clean drinking water to be preserved for communities. The hyperscaler also utilizes rainwater as a sustainable water source that lowers its demand on local water resources and the potential for stormwater runoff.

According to the hyperscaler's water positive methodology, water replenishment solutions "must be additional, quantifiable, real, and socially beneficial." Although there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to water scarcity, AWS is focused on two main types of replenishment projects: watershed restoration and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) projects.

The first category supports healthy watersheds by causing measurable improvements in quantity or quality of available water. These projects may include groundwater recharge, wetland construction, or stormwater capture and treatment, but all return water to the same watershed AWS uses to supply its data centers and offices, the methodology explained.

WASH projects, on the other hand, focus on connecting communities to clean water where there was previously no consistent, equitable, or affordable access. AWS claimed it prioritizes projects that drive positive impacts in the areas its facilities are also located. But if an outlying rural area has significant WASH-related needs, AWS will expand those boundaries "to ensure we can provide the most meaningful impact to the community possible."

To that point, AWS announced new investments in water replenishment programs in India, the U.K., and California that are estimated to provide more than 823 million liters of clean water once completed. To date, AWS touts successful water replenishment projects in Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa, representing 1.6 billion liters of freshwater provided annually to those communities.

Rival hyperscaler Microsoft is similarly focused on optimizing water use in cloud computing. Noelle Walsh, VP of cloud operations and innovation, explained that Microsoft's San Jose, California data centers "will be cooled with an indirect evaporative cooling system using reclaimed water all year and zero fresh water. Because the new data center facilities will be cooled with reclaimed water, they will have a WUE of 0.00 L/kWh in terms of freshwater usage."