WATER POSITIVITY
a constraint on the AI and computing revolution. Today, nearly half of all planned or under-construction data centre facilities currently face potential permitting delays, driven primarily by concerns over water consumption and energy use. This is a regulatory bottleneck that Veolia is trying to help its clients overcome.
The AWS partnership One of the most notable aspects of the April event was the presence of Will Hewes, Water Sustainability Lead at AWS, who took part in a panel discussion alongside several of Veolia’ s leadership team, giving a perspective from one of Veolia’ s most important clients.
During the discussion, he outlined AWS’ s own sustainability commitments, noting that the company has more than 700 carbon-free energy projects worldwide and is actively working to eliminate the use of potable water for cooling across its data centre estate. The firm is also committed to returning more water to communities than it consumes.
“ We’ ll have, in the next couple of years, over 120 data centres around the world using recycled water,” he said, adding that AWS has also announced more than 45 water replenishment projects to date.
Tech companies like AWS, however, cannot manage such initiatives without the expertise of a specialist like Veolia.
104 June 2026