Water
Roughly half of the world’s population suffers from severe water scarcity, with more than 2 billion people lacking access to safe drinking water. But Amazon employees are leading water conservation and replenishment work everywhere from India to London to your local Whole Foods.
Abhinav Sidhu, senior manager of projects for Amazon’s India fulfillment centers, leads the revitalization of water sources in the region. Partnering with SayTrees, Amazon is restoring Yamare Lake in Bengaluru and Sai Reddy Lake in Hyderabad.
“By the end of 2025, we expect to return more than 571 million liters each year,” Sidhu says.
The projects contribute to Amazon’s goal to replenish more water to communities in India than it uses by 2027. Globally, Amazon has invested in 27 freshwater replenishment projects, which are expected to return over 8 billion liters of water annually once completed.
“We’re not just restoring lakes,” Sidhu says. “We’re reviving ecosystems and securing a sustainable water future for thousands of people.”
Beau Schilz, a Seattle-based principal for the AWS Water Team, leads innovations in data center water use.
“Our data centers have thousands of sensors that track water use in real time," Schilz says.
AWS’ water use efficiency has improved by 28% since 2021, contributing to its goal of being water positive by 2030. AWS is also developing sustainable water sources like recycled water and rainwater harvesting for cooling.
“Data centers need water to increase power efficiency,” Schilz says, “but we’re also reusing water that would otherwise be discarded by the community—leaving more freshwater for others to use.”
Aditi Saraf, a chemical engineer working out of London, leads a water stewardship program for the Amazon Logistics business. Her team has implemented a smart metering and machine learning system to detect and prevent water leaks across Amazon facilities in the United States and Europe.
In the United Kingdom alone, the system saved an estimated 700,000 cubic meters of water over two years across 53 sites.
“We’re gaining crucial insights into water pipeline failures and usage patterns,” Saraf says. The program aims to reduce water intensity, focusing initially on EU countries.
Cameron Crake, principal program manager of sustainability at Whole Foods Market, is exploring innovative ways to reduce water use in stores and the supply chain. One example is the Boss Defrost system, which reuses water for thawing frozen products instead of letting it run down the drain.
In a sample of Denver area stores, overall water usage decreased by an average of 12% between 2021 and 2022 after installing Boss Defrost systems.
“We’re starting in our own operations, but we’re looking at the entire supply chain to make a bigger impact," Crake says.
Visit Amazon’s water stewardship page to learn more about our work to conserve one of Earth’s most precious resources.