"The 2022 memo, viewed by the Guardian as well as the investigative non-profit SourceMaterial, found that Amazon used 105 billion gallons of water in 2021, as much as 958,000 US households or a "city bigger than San Francisco," as the document put it. However, in the run-up to a November 2022 PR campaign called "Water Positive," Amazon only disclosed 7.7 billion gallons of water use per year - an enormous discrepancy."
"The two publications report that creative accounting was done to ease executive's anxieties about "reputational risk," fearing bad publicity if the true numbers ever saw the light of day. The paper even included theoretical headlines should they ever be caught lying about its water use, like one which read "Amazon hides its water consumption." Since 2021, the company's data center footprint has expanded massively."
A 2022 internal memo recorded Amazon data centers consuming roughly 105 billion gallons of water in 2021, comparable to 958,000 US households or a city larger than San Francisco. Public disclosures tied to a November 2022 "Water Positive" campaign reported just 7.7 billion gallons by excluding secondary water sources associated with electricity generation. Executives discussed creative accounting and hiding the larger figure to avoid reputational risk, and internal materials included hypothetical headlines about concealment. The company's data center footprint has expanded significantly since 2021 amid heavy investment. A company spokesperson called the 2022 document obsolete and said it misrepresents current water strategy.
Read at Futurism
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]