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Water is a shared and vital resource, and we approach <\/span>water stewardship<\/span><\/a> with the responsibility and technical expertise it deserves. Being good stewards of water is critical for our business, and it also benefits the communities where our data centers are located by enhancing water quality, boosting water supply and reliability, and promoting biodiversity.<\/span><\/p>\n Our water stewardship efforts are rooted in three pillars which propel us toward our goal of <\/span>becoming water positive in 2030<\/span><\/a>, meaning we will restore more water than we consume in the watersheds in which we operate.<\/span><\/p>\n Our industry-leading data centers are the backbone of our apps, technologies, and <\/span>AI ambitions<\/span><\/a>, providing the infrastructure that drives innovation. Advanced cooling systems are required to ensure that our data center hardware functions at the right temperature, and we sometimes need to use water to prevent equipment from overheating and operate within safety thresholds.<\/span><\/p>\n We determine the most efficient cooling technology for each data center by assessing a variety of local factors \u2014 location, climate, available resources, and technological needs \u2014 while also working in partnership with the local water utility. Depending on local conditions, our typical data center design utilizes a direct-to-chip liquid, closed-loop cooling system with dry coolers. In these systems, a coolant is circulated through our data halls in a closed piped system to absorb the heat generated by our servers and hardware. The heat is then removed by operating dry coolers that blow air over the pipes, carrying away excess heat. For these data centers, there is no operational water use in the cooling system and water use at the site is minimal and limited to domestic and janitorial needs, equipment cleaning, and fire protection.<\/span><\/p>\n Our <\/span>Beaver Dam, Wisconsin data center<\/span><\/a> will feature this closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry coolers, and the total estimated annual water use for the data center, once operational, is anticipated to be less than that of two full-service restaurants in a year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As part of our broader water conservation efforts at our data centers, we install water-saving fixtures and appliances within the data center buildings and plant native or adaptive plant species to limit the need for irrigation water. We also focus on conserving potable water during data center construction. For example, during the construction of our <\/span>Kansas City, Missouri data center<\/span><\/a>, we saved more than one million gallons of potable water by capturing and repurposing stormwater from onsite retention ponds to suppress dust during the site\u2019s construction.<\/span><\/p>\n All of our operational data center buildings achieve LEED Gold certification, which <\/span>means they meet very high standards for energy efficiency, clean and renewable energy, water conservation, supply chain responsibility, and recycling. <\/span>We also use <\/span>AI to optimize data center cooling<\/span><\/a>, reducing both energy and water use.<\/span><\/p>\n Reducing the amount of water consumed at our data centers and using it more efficiently is key to reaching our water positive goal. Additionally, we are investing in water conservation and restoration projects that promote biodiversity in local natural habitats, boost water quality and reliability, and ensure safe drinking water for local communities. The water restoration projects we support have a hydrological connection to the source water consumed in our operations and are verified by independent third parties. See our annual <\/span>Volumetric Water Benefits Report<\/span><\/a> for a comprehensive overview of the projects we support.<\/span><\/p>\n Since 2017, we have funded or supported more than 40 water restoration projects in nine watersheds where we operate data centers. In 2024 alone, these operational restoration projects returned more than 1.59 billion gallons of water to high and medium water-stress regions. Once all projects are fully implemented, they are expected to restore 2.9 to 3.4 billion gallons of water annually.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re committed to playing a positive role and investing in the long-term vitality of the communities in which we operate. This includes supporting local water infrastructure projects. For example, at our Kuna, Idaho data center, we invested over $70 million to build a water and wastewater treatment facility that has since been gifted to the city. This new facility will serve the people and businesses of Kuna for generations to come. For our Richland Parish, Louisiana data center, we are investing over $200 million in local infrastructure, including new wastewater infrastructure, that will be given back to the local community and improve local water quality. And in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, we\u2019re working with local conservation partners to<\/span> restore 570 acres of wetlands<\/span><\/a> and prairie on and surrounding our data center campus.<\/span><\/p>\n We will continue to share progress toward our 2030 water positive goal and disclose how much water and energy we consume at our operational data centers in our <\/span>annual sustainability report<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>environmental data index<\/span><\/a>. In addition, we\u2019ll continue to share aspects of our data center cooling advancements through the <\/span>Open Compute Project<\/span><\/a>, which focuses <\/span>on redesigning hardware to support the growing demands of our data center infrastructure at scale.<\/span><\/p>\n We continue to lead our industry in pushing the boundaries of data center cooling technologies and other innovations, minimizing our water use throughout the infrastructure that brings our apps and technologies to life. We also pledge to sustain our investments in water conservation and restoration projects through our long-term partnerships with NGOs that are critical to solving shared water challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Maximizing Efficiency and Minimizing Water Use<\/h2>\n
Supporting Water Restoration Projects<\/h2>\n
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Funding Local Water Infrastructure Improvements<\/h2>\n
Being Transparent With Our Water Data<\/h2>\n