Amazon’s cloud provider service, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced today a commitment to become water positive by 2030, returning more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations and supporting water replenishment projects across India, the UK and the US. 

The company said that the strategy to reach its water positive target will consist of four key aspects including improving water efficiency, using sustainable water sources, returning water for community reuse and supporting water replenishment projects.

Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS, said:

 “Water scarcity is a major issue around the world and with today’s water positive announcement we are committing to do our part to help solve this rapidly growing challenge. In just a few years half of the world’s population is projected to live in water-stressed areas, so to ensure all people have access to water, we all need to innovate new ways to help conserve and reuse this precious resource. While we are proud of the progress we have made, we know there is more we can do.”

AWS outlined a series of water replenishment initiatives around the world, including supporting recently launched water, sanitation and hygiene-focused non-profit WaterAid projects in India, working in the UK with initiatives The Rivers Trust and Action for the River Kennet to create two wetlands on a tributary of the River Thames, and in the U.S., recharging 189 million liters of groundwater per year using winter water from the Cosumnes River in collaboration with conservation non-profit Freshwater Trust, and the Omochumne-Hartnell Water District.

The company also announced that in continued efforts to meet its water reuse and recycling target, it will report annually on its global water use efficiency (WUE) metric, which stood at 0.25 liters of water per kilowatt-hour in 2021.

The company stated that today’s announcement adds to Amazon’s recent $10 million commitment to Water.org’s Water & Climate Fund, which works to deliver climate-resilient water and sanitation solutions to 100 million people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Matt Damon, co-founder of Water.org, said:

“Our work with Amazon is supported by the shared belief that solving the global water crisis is possible. We commend AWS for committing to return more water than it uses by announcing Water+ by 2030.”