Google Commits to Replenish More Water Than Its Data Centers Consume by 2030, Announces $17M in Projects and Industry Blueprint

Google published a blog post on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, outlining five commitments around water use at its data centers. The company said its goal is to replenish more water than it uses at its data centers by 2030. It also said it will invest in local water infrastructure, identify alternative water sources, and remain transparent about its water use overall.

Google announced $17 million to support new water stewardship projects across seven states. The company said it will be able to replenish more water than it consumes in the next four years by investing in projects that improve irrigation and infrastructure. It has used reclaimed wastewater in one Georgia county.

Ben Townsend, Google’s global head of infrastructure and sustainability, told The Verge that the company thinks it is important to put a blueprint out there that communities can reference when data centers are proposed. “We’re just one of dozens of players in the space,” Townsend said.

“We think it’s really important to sort of put a blueprint out there that communities can reference, so if somebody else comes and says, ‘we’d like to build a data center there,’ a community can say, ‘well, here are five different things that really put the community and the watershed first.

Are you doing these? Are you doing one of them? All of them? None of them? ’” Bikash Koley, Google’s vice president of global infrastructure, wrote that water cooling can reduce data center energy use by approximately 10% compared to air cooling.

U.S. data centers use less than 1% of the water that Americans use on their lawns annually — but we are focused on protecting local water resources in all aspects of our data center operations,” Koley wrote. Google promises to keep reporting its annual water use.

Townsend said that to the best of Google’s ability, the company is accounting for the offsite water footprint. He said Google has made significant progress in reducing or eliminating the water footprint of its supply chain through waterless renewable energy investments. “It would be a real disservice to the space to say there’s only misconceptions out there.

That’s not true,” Townsend said. Alphabet recently said it wants to raise $80 billion from stock sales to fund its AI buildout. A recent Gallup poll found that more than 70 percent of Americans oppose the idea of a data center being built in their area.

Half of the respondents cited data centers’ impact on environmental resources as a motivator behind their opposition, including 18 percent who cited excess water use as an issue. AI data centers require vast amounts of water for cooling. A recent study found that AI technology used as much water annually as people drink from water bottles worldwide.