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Water stewardship

Aiming to replenish more water than we consume and help improve water quality and ecosystem health in the communities where we operate

At Google, we utilize water to help cool our data centers and in our offices around the world. Water is also used throughout our value chain, in the manufacturing of both consumer hardware products and data center equipment.

We work to drive water efficiency and reuse across our global operations. From reducing our potable water use intensity at our San Francisco Bay Area headquarters to exploring ways to incorporate circularity strategies, we’ve worked to drive water efficiency and reuse across our global operations.

Our water stewardship strategy is centered on enhancing responsible water resource management across our data centers and offices, sharing tools and technology that can help address water challenges, and improving watershed health and ecosystems in water-stressed communities. In 2021, we announced our goal to replenish 120% of the freshwater volume we consume, on average, across our offices and data centers by 2030, and help restore and improve the quality of water and health of ecosystems in the communities where we operate.

When it comes to addressing shared water challenges, technology can be a useful tool to bring visibility to these challenges to enable smarter, more informed decision-making. We’re building tools to make water data and technology universally accessible, enabling effective water stewardship and improving the resilience of watersheds and ecosystems.

Our key efforts

Our key efforts

Aiming to replenish more water than we consume and help improve water quality and ecosystem health in the communities where we operate

At Google, we utilize water to help cool our data centers and in our offices around the world. Water is also used throughout our value chain, in the manufacturing of both consumer hardware products and data center equipment.

We work to drive water efficiency and reuse across our global operations. From reducing our potable water use intensity at our San Francisco Bay Area headquarters to exploring ways to incorporate circularity strategies, we’ve worked to drive water efficiency and reuse across our global operations.

Our water stewardship strategy is centered on enhancing responsible water resource management across our data centers and offices, sharing tools and technology that can help address water challenges, and improving watershed health and ecosystems in water-stressed communities. In 2021, we announced our goal to replenish 120% of the freshwater volume we consume, on average, across our offices and data centers by 2030, and help restore and improve the quality of water and health of ecosystems in the communities where we operate.

When it comes to addressing shared water challenges, technology can be a useful tool to bring visibility to these challenges to enable smarter, more informed decision-making. We’re building tools to make water data and technology universally accessible, enabling effective water stewardship and improving the resilience of watersheds and ecosystems.

Advancing responsible water use

These colorful pipes in our Douglas County, Georgia data center send and receive water for cooling our facility.

Data centers

View of Bay View campus at night

Offices

A worker tightens a valve coupling in our Hamina, Finland data center

Supply chain

Benefiting watersheds and communities

Cooling towers at a data center in Belgium

Our goal to replenish more water than we consume

Supporting water security with technology

An oblique aerial view overlooking Brisbane, Australia.

Quantifying and visualizing surface water changes

Aerial photo of a brightly-colored river delta.

Predicting and preventing water stress

Clear waters reflect the beauty of our Eemshaven, Netherlands data center.

Grants to promising water stewardship solutions

Cover image of a white paper titled: Google Water Stewardship Accelerating positive change at Google, and beyond

featured report

Google Water Stewardship: Accelerating positive change at Google, and beyond

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