\n<\/p>\n
Amazon strategised about keeping the public in the dark over the true extent of its datacentres\u2019 water use, a leaked internal document reveals.<\/p>\n
The biggest owner of datacentres in the world, Amazon dwarfs competitors Microsoft and Google and is planning a huge increase in capacity as part of a push into artificial intelligence. The Seattle firm operates hundreds of active facilities, with many more in development despite concerns over how much water is being used to cool their vast arrays of circuitry.<\/p>\n
Amazon defends its approach and has taken steps to manage how efficient its water use is, but it has faced criticism over transparency. Microsoft and Google regularly publish figures for their water consumption, but Amazon has never publicly disclosed how much water its server farms consume.<\/p>\n
When designing a campaign for water efficiency, the company\u2019s cloud computing division chose to account for only a smaller water usage figure that does not include all the ways its datacentres use water so as to minimise the risk to its reputation, according to a leaked memo seen by SourceMaterial and the Guardian.<\/p>\n
Amazon as a whole consumed 105bn gallons of water in total in 2021, as much as 958,000 US households, which would make for a city bigger than San Francisco, according to the memo.<\/p>\n
Asked about the leaked document, Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan described it as \u201cobsolete\u201d and said it \u201ccompletely misrepresents Amazon\u2019s current water usage strategy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA document\u2019s existence doesn\u2019t guarantee its accuracy or finality,\u201d she said. \u201cMeetings often reshape documents or reveal flawed findings or claims.\u201d Callahan would not elaborate on which strategic elements of the document were \u201cobsolete\u201d.<\/p>\n
The memo was dated one month before Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company\u2019s cloud computing division, debuted a new sustainability campaign in November 2022 called \u201cWater Positive\u201d, with a commitment to \u201creturn more water than it uses\u201d by 2030.<\/p>\n
In the memo, ahead of the campaign\u2019s launch, executives grappled with whether to include public disclosures about \u201csecondary\u201d use \u2013 water used in generating the electricity to power its datacentres.<\/p>\n
They warned that full transparency was \u201ca one-way door\u201d and advised keeping AWS\u2019s projections confidential, even as they feared that their advice could invite accusations of a cover-up. \u201cAmazon hides its water consumption\u201d was one negative headline the authors anticipated.<\/p>\n
Callaghan said efficiency savings have already been achieved and pointed out that other companies also don\u2019t count secondary water use.<\/p>\n
Executives opted to use only the relatively smaller figure of primary use, 7.7bn gallons per year, roughly equivalent to 11,600 Olympic swimming pools, when calculating progress towards internal targets because of \u201creputational risk\u201d, fearing bad publicity if the full scale of Amazon\u2019s consumption was revealed, the document shows. Ultimately as part of the campaign for water efficiency, Amazon aimed to cut its estimated 7.7bn gallon primary consumption to 4.9bn by 2030 \u2013 without addressing secondary use.<\/p>\n
Using the higher of two water usage estimates, the one that would include secondary use, \u201cwould double the size and budget\u201d of the campaign \u201cwithout addressing meaningful operational, regulatory or reputational risks\u201d, they warned, adding that there was \u201cno focus from customers or media\u201d on water used for electricity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may decide to release water volumes in the future,\u201d the document said. \u201cBut \u2026 we should only do so if the lack of data undermines the programme or is required by regulators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scientists balked at the selective disclosure and the choice not to include secondary use of water in the total.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn environmental science, it is standard practice to include both to more accurately capture the true water cost of datacentres,\u201d said Shaolei Ren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside.<\/p>\n
Amazon\u2019s Water Positive campaign is still active and does not take into account secondary use, while the company continues to keep its current overall water consumption confidential.<\/p>\n
As US tech companies ride the wave of AI investment and pursue greater heights of computational power, the $2.4tn corporation is building new datacentres in some of the world\u2019s driest areas, SourceMaterial and the Guardian revealed in April.<\/p>\n
In November 2022, AWS debuted its new Water Positive sustainability campaign, with a commitment to \u201creturn more water than it uses by 2030\u201d. The campaign only applies to AWS. The wider Amazon group, including the world\u2019s biggest online retail business, has an overall water consumption that is far higher, 105bn gallons per year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe models referenced in this document were preliminary and unvetted,\u201d said Amazon\u2019s Callahan, who declined to provide any alternative figures.<\/p>\n
The document\u2019s authors advised the company not to release data about the wider company, but they also warned that selective disclosure could lead to accusations of a cover-up. There was \u201creputational risk of publicly committing to a goal for only a portion of Amazon\u2019s direct water footprint\u201d, they wrote. They even suggested negative headlines that might result including \u201cAmazon disappoints, failing to take full responsibility for water\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be better if they could own up to it,\u201d said a current Amazon software developer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. \u201cEven if they said it was a low priority, at least that would be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a sustainability report in August, AWS claimed it had achieved 53% of its Water Positive goal. The division\u2019s plan for reaching the target relies mostly on \u201cwater replenishment\u201d projects, some in partnership with Water.org, a non-profit organisation co-founded by actor Matt Damon. The strategy document refers to these projects as \u201coffsets\u201d, describing initiatives like using Amazon computer technology to help utilities prioritise which pipes to fix in order to minimise leaks.<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n But of the $109m AWS planned to spend on offsets, around half would have been spent anyway, either to meet regulatory requirements or because the projects would help AWS operations by making water more available, the document shows. Experts said this amounted to incomplete accounting.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of what sort of offsetting or replenishment you do, it doesn\u2019t necessarily nullify the water footprints of your own operations,\u201d said Tyler Farrow, standards manager at the Alliance for Water Stewardship. \u201cCalling your operations water positive or water neutral is misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s Callahan said that the \u201creplenishment spending\u201d, which other tech companies also undertake, is a voluntary, not a regulatory, requirement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve expanded well beyond what was imagined in the document because it\u2019s the right thing to do for the world and for the communities in which we operate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Amazon is also engineering industry standards to downplay its water use and avert scrutiny, said Nathan Wangusi, a former water sustainability manager at the company.<\/p>\n The corporation has funded efforts by the Nature Conservancy and the World Resources Institute non-profits, alongside LimnoTech, a consultancy, \u201cto create a globally accepted methodology for quantifying the benefit of watershed restoration projects\u201d.<\/p>\n Responding to questions from SourceMaterial, all three organisations defended their integrity and independence, insisting that Amazon had no undue influence on any methodologies they had created.<\/p>\n \u201cThey spend a lot of time creating methodologies that are used to obfuscate the water footprint,\u201d Wangusi said, referring to Amazon.<\/p>\n Callahan said Wangusi\u2019s claim was \u201ccontradicted by facts\u201d. \u201cAmazon\u2019s water use reporting is based on third-party assured data from actual utility bills, not estimates or self-reporting,\u201d she said. Wangusi\u2019s claim, though, was not about Amazon\u2019s water-use reporting, but about measuring the effects of water offsets.<\/p>\n Callahan said these efforts were \u201cstandard practice\u201d and that Amazon\u2019s \u201ccustomers expect us to hold ourselves accountable to credible guidance and best practices\u201d.<\/p>\n As well as choosing not to disclose water use from electricity generation, Amazon has estimated its larger \u201cindirect\u201d water footprint, the document shows. This extra usage, which falls under a classification known as \u201cscope 3\u201d, includes water for production and construction \u2013 in Amazon\u2019s case, mostly irrigation of cotton plantations supplying its fashion brands, and vegetables for its grocery arm, Amazon Fresh.<\/p>\n Here, too, Amazon decided to keep its consumption confidential, even though \u201cindirect water use represents roughly 90% of Amazon\u2019s total water footprint\u201d, according to the document.<\/p>\n AWS avoided establishing targets for indirect water use because that figure would be \u201cmuch more significant for the rest of Amazon, especially in the agricultural supply chain, and the team does not want to establish a standard for addressing scope 3 water use that the rest of Amazon would need to follow, given the larger resource implications\u201d, the authors wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t need to obscure or obfuscate,\u201d said Wangusi, who believes he was \u201chounded out\u201d of Amazon for criticising the company\u2019s approach. (Amazon declined to comment on his departure.)<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make you more profitable,\u201d he said. \u201cIt makes you less trustworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n Quick Guide<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Show<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.<\/p>\n If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.<\/p>\n Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/strong><\/p>\n The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS\/Android) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019. <\/p>\n SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post<\/strong><\/p>\n If you can safely use the Tor network without being observed or monitored, you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.<\/p>\n Finally, our guide at theguardian.com\/tips\u00a0lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration: Guardian Design \/ Rich Cousins<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amazon strategised about keeping the public in the dark over the true extent of its datacentres\u2019 water use, a leaked internal document reveals. The biggest owner of datacentres in the world, Amazon dwarfs competitors Microsoft and Google and is planning a huge increase in capacity as part of a push into artificial intelligence. 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