Google will replenish more water than it uses at data centers

There’s been a lot of pushback in recent months around the impact of AI data centers on local communities, with the use of water being a key issue for many. Google, in an expension of its “water stewardship” programs, is making commitments that include replenishing more water than it uses at its data center sites.

AI data centers go through a lot of water use in cooling the hardware used to power models, and Google is no exception. While Google stands by saying that the impact of AI data centers on US water consumption is “small,” it also says it is focusing on “protecting local water resources in all aspects of our data center operations.”

In a post, Google explains five new commitments regarding water use at its data centers in the US.

These include replenishing more water than is consumed at data centers, helping local utilities to modernize water infrastructure, using air-cooled solutions in areas where watersheds are at risk, “transparently” reporting water use at data centers, and focusing on “alternative and reclaimed” water solutions.

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Google says:

1. Replenish more water than we consume at our sites 2 by 2030. By investing in replenishment projects, we can help improve water security for everyone. In 2025, we replenished more than 7 billion gallons (roughly equivalent to the annual water usage of 70,000 average U.S. households). 3 And, today, we have 165 water stewardship projects across 97 watersheds. Once these projects are fully implemented, they are expected to replenish more than 19 billion gallons 4 of water annually by 2030, more than double our 2024 consumption (enough water to supply the entire city of Los Angeles for more than 40 days). The majority of these projects not only deliver volumetric benefits, but also help improve broader watershed health challenges such as water quality.
2. Help modernize water and wastewater infrastructure for our neighbors. Water utilities are often underfunded. By working with our utility partners, we are helping update public water infrastructure so that our neighbors have reliable, affordable water sources both today and in the future. In addition to paying for the water we use, to date Google has committed over $500 million to the development of water, wastewater and water reuse infrastructure and to the utility partners that deliver water in the communities where we operate/build data centers. This includes projects ranging from enhancing local water supplies to detecting leaky pipes. We’re committed to continuing to help local utilities update their infrastructure.
3. Protect at-risk watersheds with air-cooled solutions. We use a data-driven framework to assess local watersheds for new data centers before we build, and only consider water cooling if local resources are healthy and resilient. If a water source is at high risk, we choose air cooling or recycled water. We will continue to work in partnership with state agencies and local utilities to follow these principles and ensure our approach reflects community needs.
4. Report our annual water use transparently. Water use shouldn’t be a “black box.” Google was the first major cloud provider to disclose our annual water use for our data center locations, and we’re committed to continuing to do so to ensure transparency for the communities where we invest and build.
5. Pursue alternative and reclaimed solutions to protect water resources. We are working with utility partners to identify freshwater alternatives at our data centers, such as reclaimed wastewater. A prime example is in Douglas County, Ga., where we partnered with the county’s water and sewer authority to reuse treated wastewater for cooling at our data center campus.

In a linked paper, Google says it will replenish 120% of the water it uses at data center sites by 2030.

Google is also committing $17 million to new water stewardship projects in Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas in addition to 165 other projects already in place throughout the US.

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