Amazon strategised about keeping its datacentres' full water use secret (www.theguardian.com)

A leaked internal memo shows Amazon Web Services privately debated hiding the full scale of its datacentre water footprint while preparing its November 2022 “Water Positive” campaign. The document says AWS chose to report only primary water use (7.7 billion gallons/year) and set a target to cut that to 4.9 billion by 2030, excluding “secondary” water consumed when generating the electricity that powers servers — a choice the memo argued reduced projected costs and reputational risk. The broader Amazon group reportedly used 105 billion gallons in 2021. Amazon calls the memo obsolete; critics say the selective accounting understates true impacts and risks being seen as a cover-up. The episode matters because as AWS scales up for AI — building more compute in water-stressed regions — accurate water accounting is essential for regulation, community risk assessments, and credible sustainability claims. Experts say standard practice is to include secondary and scope‑3 (indirect) uses — the memo itself estimates indirect use could be ~90% of Amazon’s total footprint — yet AWS’s campaign omits these. The strategy also leans heavily on “replenishment” offsets ($109M planned, about half of which would have happened regardless), and Amazon has funded methodology work with NGOs and consultants that could shape how offsets and benefits are measured. The leak raises technical and governance questions about how to measure, disclose and regulate the water costs of rapidly expanding AI infrastructure.