Amazon's Local Plans to Cut Water Use at Global Data Centres
In its recent sustainability report, Amazon announced that its data centres are now seven times more water-efficient than the industry average. In 2025, the company used 0.12 litres of water per kilowatt-hour, 20% better than in 2024.
Some of this progress comes from where the data centres are located. In 2025, 48% of Amazon’s water use was in areas with low water stress, while 22% was in areas with high or very high water stress.
Engineering changes have helped reduce water use. Installing in-row heat exchangers cut water needs in cooling systems by 9%.
Smart meters now track water use in real time across all sites, saving 938 million litres of water in 2025, while water treatment systems are now running at 31% of data centres.
“I've spent my career studying how complex systems can become more sustainable - first in academia, now in practice at AWS,” says Alexis Bateman, Head of Sustainability at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
“What I find most energising about this work is that it's never 'done'. It's iterative, it's humbling and it requires honesty about where we are alongside pride in how far we've come.”
Non-potable cooling sources
As well as using less water overall, Amazon is also switching to alternative water sources.
Most of its data centres use outside air for cooling most of the year and only use water during the hottest periods.
When water is needed, Amazon uses non-drinkable sources, such as treated municipal wastewater, to help protect local drinking water supplies.
This helps Amazon work toward its goal of becoming water positive by 2030, meaning it will give back more water to communities and the environment than it uses.
By the end of 2025, Amazon had reached 75% of this goal.
Utility contracts to scale industrial reuse
Switching to recycled water means working closely with public utilities.
When water is needed, Amazon uses non-drinkable sources, such as treated municipal wastewater, to help protect local drinking water supplies.
This helps Amazon work toward its goal of becoming water positive by 2030, meaning it will give back more water to communities and the environment than it uses.
By the end of 2025, Amazon had reached 75% of this goal.
Utility contracts to scale industrial reuse
Switching to recycled water means working closely with public utilities.
Amazon has made deals with 13 utilities to supply treated wastewater to 130 data centres in nine regions.
In 2025, 26 of these centres used 849 million litres of recycled water for cooling, making Amazon a leading user of treated wastewater among cloud providers.
Local projects are helping Amazon use recycled water in more countries.
In Singapore, all of Amazon’s data centres use the national reclaimed water system, NEWater, so they do not use drinking water for cooling.
Amazon is working with Greater Western Water in Australia to bring advanced treated water to a Melbourne centre, the first of its kind in Victoria.
Finally, in Hong Kong, Amazon and the Water Supplies Department set up a system for treating water inside the data centre, changing old rules that only allowed freshwater for cooling.
