By Lauren Feiner
Publication Date: 2026-06-03 09:00:00
Amid widespread backlash over the construction of AI data centers across the US, Google is touting its efforts to minimize its environmental impact by actually increasing water for local communities.
The company laid out five water-use commitments in a new blog post published Wednesday, including a goal to replenish more water than it uses in its data centers by 2030. Google also said it would invest in local water infrastructure, identify alternative water sources to power its facilities and be transparent about its overall water usage.
“We are just one of dozens of players in this space,” said Ben Townsend, global head of infrastructure and sustainability at Google The edge in an interview. “We think it’s really important to put out some kind of blueprint that communities can relate to. So if someone else comes and says, ‘We’d like to build a data center there,’ a community can say, ‘Well, here are five different things that the community is really excited about…
