Google pledged to replenish more water than it consumes at its data centers by 2030, expanding to 165 stewardship projects across 97 watersheds that it expects to replenish 19 billion gallons a year, more than double its 2024 consumption. The commitment lands amid growing community anxiety over data centers’ water use, much of it for cooling AI servers, with a mid-size facility consuming around 300,000 gallons a day, equivalent to 1,000 U.S. households. Alongside the replenishment projects, Google is investing $500M to upgrade public water and wastewater infrastructure, and pledged to switch to air cooling at sites where the local water source is deemed high-risk.
