GoKawiilMore than a dozen investors are pressuring Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet's Google to provide detailed data on water and energy consumption at their U.S. data centers, Reuters reported today. The pressure comes as all three companies have recently scrapped multibillion-dollar data center projects following community opposition, and as North American data centers consumed nearly 1 trillion liters of water in 2025, according to market research firm Mordor Intelligence.
Trillium Asset Management, a Boston-based firm managing more than $4 billion in assets, filed a resolution with Alphabet in December demanding clarity on how the company plans to meet climate goals it set in 2020, Andrea Ranger, director of shareholder advocacy at Trillium, told Reuters. Alphabet pledged six years ago to halve its emissions and shift to carbon-free energy sources by 2030, but Trillium said emissions instead rose 51%. A similar resolution from Trillium last year won support from nearly a quarter of independent shareholders.
Green Century Capital Management is separately in discussions with Nvidia about submitting a resolution focused on ensuring short-term AI growth does not undermine long-term climate and financial stability, shareholder advocate Giovanna Eichner told Reuters. She declined to share further details.
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Mordor Intelligence's estimate of nearly 1 trillion liters consumed by North American data centers in 2025 is roughly equivalent to New York City's annual water demand. All four major hyperscalers have adopted closed-loop cooling systems that use substantially less water than traditional evaporative methods, but the level of disclosure varies.
Meta's 2025 environmental report covered only sites it owns, excluding leased and under-construction facilities. Its total water usage rose 51% between 2020 and 2024, from 3,726 megaliters to 5,637 megaliters. Google's report included owned and leased sites but excluded those operated by third parties. Amazon and Microsoft both reported total water usage in their 2025 sustainability reports, but didn’t break it down by individual site.
Investors want site-level data to assess operational risks more accurately. "We haven't seen them disclosing enough about their water consumption (and the) impact on the local community," Jason Qi, lead technology analyst at Calvert Research and Management, told Reuters.
Josh Weissman, director of infrastructure capacity delivery at Amazon, told Reuters the company is "increasingly disclosing site-specific water consumption data where we operate." An Amazon spokesperson added that the company was committed to being a "good neighbor" and was investing in efficiency and water reduction efforts. A Microsoft spokesperson said environmental sustainability was "a core value." Google declined to comment, and Meta did not respond to Reuters' request.
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Water usage is still a key concern for AI data centers. Some estimates say that generating just 100 words with OpenAI's GPT-4 consumes three bottles of water. Last year, another study suggested that AI data centers use more water annually than people drink bottled water, globally.
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