Amazon has partnered with a range of water sustainability stakeholders to form the Water-AI Nexus Center of Excellence.

The center will focus on developing sustainable water practices for AI infrastructure and exploring the use of AI to address global water challenges.

Amazon was joined by the Water Environment Federation, the Water Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Leading Utilities of the World networking organization on the formation of the initiative.

"Water utilities worldwide are facing unprecedented challenges from climate change and aging infrastructure, while simultaneously working to serve communities that depend on reliable, affordable water services," said Howard Carter, president of The Water Environment Federation. "The Water-AI Nexus Center of Excellence will accelerate innovation by connecting water professionals with AI experts to develop solutions that benefit both sectors as well as the communities they serve."

The initiative has two core missions. The first is dubbed "Water for AI," which aims to ensure that AI infrastructure uses water as efficiently as possible. The second, known as "AI for Water," aims to leverage the capabilities of AI to solve pressing water scarcity and management challenges.

The Water-AI Nexus will support a range of initiatives, including establishing standards and best practices for water use that can be shared across the data processing industry, supporting knowledge sharing, and facilitating cross-sector collaboration among water utilities, AI developers, researchers, and government officials.

As part of the launch, the body has released a roadmap for data center operators to minimize water impacts while maximizing technological advancement. The report outlines four key principles, including strategic design and location, optimizing operational efficiency, the use of sustainable water sources, and pursuing water replenishment to deliver water back to communities.

“We believe responsible innovation means both addressing our water footprint and using technology to solve global water challenges," said Beau Schilz, water principal at Amazon Web Services.

"At Amazon, we strive to reduce water use in our operations, which include logistics sites such as fulfillment centers, as well as in our corporate offices and grocery stores. We’re also committed to returning more water to communities than we use across our data centers by 2030—being a founding leader of the Center of Excellence will help not only Amazon in its goals, but others as well, as we aim to collectively transform water management worldwide.”

Water usage is a major concern among major data center developers. According to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), a typical 100MW data center in the US uses around two million liters of water daily. On a global scale, the IEA estimates the data center industry currently consumes more than 560 billion liters of water each year, with that figure potentially rising to 1,200 billion liters annually by 2030.

Amazon has undertaken several measures to make its water use more sustainable. In June, the company announced that it was expanding the number of locations using treated wastewater for data center cooling from 20 to 120.

Google, Microsoft, and Meta have all also undertaken initiatives to support more sustainable water usage and have committed to reaching water positivity by 2030.