Rosa Furneaux
@rosafurneaux.bsky.social
Senior investigative reporter at SourceMaterial • Climate, corruption, democracy • Previously Reuters, TBIJ • [email protected]
Our @source-material.org story, led by @lukewbarratt.bsky.social, is published today in collaboration with @theguardian.com.
You can read it in The Guardian here:
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
You can read it in The Guardian here:
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Amazon strategised about keeping its datacentres’ full water use secret, leaked document shows
Executives at world’s biggest datacenter owner grappled with disclosing information about water used to help power facilities
www.theguardian.com
October 25, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Our @source-material.org story, led by @lukewbarratt.bsky.social, is published today in collaboration with @theguardian.com.
You can read it in The Guardian here:
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
You can read it in The Guardian here:
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Instead, Amazon officials opted to use only the relatively smaller figure of primary use, 7.7 billion gallons, when calculating progress towards its target because of “reputational risk”, fearing bad publicity if the full scale of Amazon’s consumption was revealed, the document shows.
October 25, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Instead, Amazon officials opted to use only the relatively smaller figure of primary use, 7.7 billion gallons, when calculating progress towards its target because of “reputational risk”, fearing bad publicity if the full scale of Amazon’s consumption was revealed, the document shows.
AWS, the company’s cloud computing division that oversees its data centres, noted that it would be harder to reach its internal target if its calculations included “secondary” use—water used in generating the electricity to power its data centres, according to the document.
October 25, 2025 at 1:23 PM
AWS, the company’s cloud computing division that oversees its data centres, noted that it would be harder to reach its internal target if its calculations included “secondary” use—water used in generating the electricity to power its data centres, according to the document.
In the leaked document, Amazon executives warned that transparency was “a one-way door” and advised keeping its projections confidential, even as they feared inviting accusations of a cover-up.
'Amazon hides its water consumption' was one hypothetical headline the authors warned of.
'Amazon hides its water consumption' was one hypothetical headline the authors warned of.
October 25, 2025 at 1:23 PM
In the leaked document, Amazon executives warned that transparency was “a one-way door” and advised keeping its projections confidential, even as they feared inviting accusations of a cover-up.
'Amazon hides its water consumption' was one hypothetical headline the authors warned of.
'Amazon hides its water consumption' was one hypothetical headline the authors warned of.
Amazon has never publicly disclosed how much water its giant server farms consume. But the company's data centres were projected to use 7.7 billion gallons of water a year by 2030, according to the leaked strategy memo, which was circulated within the company in 2022.
October 25, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Amazon has never publicly disclosed how much water its giant server farms consume. But the company's data centres were projected to use 7.7 billion gallons of water a year by 2030, according to the leaked strategy memo, which was circulated within the company in 2022.