How Amazon Is Using Water Responsibly at Our New Carlisle Data Center Campus
Key Takeaways:
- Amazon’s St. Joseph County data center campus is designed with highly efficient cooling technology, which only uses water to cool our equipment roughly 2% of the year.
- Once construction is complete, the entire campus will use an average of 18 million gallons of water for cooling each year -- less water than nine restaurants.
- In 2027, Amazon plans to bring a water recycling system online, which will reuse more cooling water and reduce the amount needed from the utility.
- The data center campus is in the middle of a major construction effort, which has temporarily increased the total water used on site. As construction wraps up, and our buildings shift into full operations, our water use will drop significantly.
- Our use, including the temporary construction water use, represents just 2.2% of the total water produced by the Town of New Carlisle in 2024.
- Through our Kankakee Aquifer Smart Irrigation program, we have already saved over 150 million gallons in 2025 by optimizing aquifer withdrawals, returning 3.5 times more water to the aquifer than our data centers received from the utility.
Amazon Commitment to Water Stewardship
Amazon is committed to building and operating our data centers responsibly, and that includes how we use water. Our data centers lead the industry in water efficiency, and we have committed to being water positive across our global data center operations by 2030, returning more water to communities than we use. As of 2025, we were 75% of the way toward that goal.
Building responsibly also means covering our costs. When Amazon builds a data center, we invest in upgrades to the local water system that supports communities where we operate. As part of Amazon’s Data Center Commitment, we also publish our water use and water efficiency for the public to review on an annual basis. In that same spirit, and in response to community interest in our New Carlisle operations, we are voluntarily providing an update on our water use at our New Carlisle campus.
Efficient by Design
Our New Carlisle data center campus in St. Joseph County is comprised of 32 buildings. These buildings are spread across two separate land parcels, with construction ongoing at each parcel as of October 2026.
The campus is designed with highly efficient cooling technology, which only uses water to cool our equipment during the hottest hours of the year. Once construction is complete, we estimate that our entire data center campus will use water for cooling just 2% of the time during an average year for St. Joseph County. For the remaining 98% of the year, our data centers will be cooled using only outside air. This approach is designed to strategically balance water and energy needs, reducing our electricity use by 25% to 35% during peak summer demand. We expect that, on average, our entire data center campus will use approximately 18 million gallons of water for cooling each year. This estimate reflects cooling demand only and does not include water stored in on-site tanks or water used for everyday domestic needs like restrooms, sinks, and breakrooms. To put that 18 million gallons of water in perspective, that represents just 0.9% of the total water produced by the Town of New Carlisle in 2024 and is fewer than nine restaurants.
Because our New Carlisle campus is still under active construction across both land parcels, our current water use looks different from our long-term projections. Building a data center campus of this scale requires significant amounts of water for activities like mixing and curing concrete, controlling dust on large open sites, compacting soil, testing fire suppression systems, and supporting thousands of workers on site. Once construction is complete and our buildings are fully operational, our water use will be significantly lower. Below, we break down how water is being used today and how that use will decrease over time.
Our Water Use Today, Based on Ongoing Construction Activity
Our New Carlisle campus is in the middle of a major construction effort, and that is the primary reason our current water use is higher than our long-term projections. Today, construction activities, not our data center cooling systems, are driving the majority of water use on site.
From January through August 2026, our St. Joseph County campus withdrew a combined 42.2 million gallons (MG) of water from the town of New Carlisle. The water was used for three main purposes: cooling, domestic use (water used for restrooms, sinks, breakrooms, and other employee needs), and construction. The chart below summarizes the amount of water that went to each use.
As the chart shows, construction activities used roughly 21.8 million gallons—roughly half of the total volume used. Water used for our cooling systems remained well below the 18 million gallons we estimate for a full year of operations. Because our cooling systems only run from May through September, the water we draw from the utility for the remainder of 2026 will go entirely toward construction and domestic use.
Our on-site water storage tanks also play an important role in how we manage water. These tanks are designed to absorb large spikes in cooling demand during the hottest hours of the year. By drawing from stored water during those peak periods, rather than pulling directly from the utility, we help maintain steady and reliable water service for the broader New Carlisle community.
As construction wraps up, and our buildings shift into full operations, our water use will drop significantly. We expect water usage for cooling to settle at around 18 million gallons in a typical year, consistent with our estimates. In 2027, we also plan to bring our water recycling system online, which will allow us to reuse more cooling water and further reduce the amount we need from the utility.
Protecting Local Water Resources
Our data center campus is designed to minimize water use, but we also work closely with local government and regulatory bodies to ensure we are using sustainable sources of water. Our data center campus in St. Joseph County does not draw water directly from the local aquifer for cooling. Instead, we receive our water supply from the Town of New Carlisle, which withdraws from the Kankakee aquifer. According to an independent analysis, the Kankakee aquifer recharges at a rate of 44 million gallons per day. To put our usage in context:
- Our combined use of 42.2 million gallons over eight months represents just 0.39% of the aquifer's total recharge over that same period, roughly equivalent to a single day of the aquifer's natural water supply.
- Our use represents just 2.2% of the total water produced by the Town of New Carlisle in 2024.
- Through our Kankakee Aquifer Smart Irrigation program, we have already saved over 150 million gallons in 2025 by optimizing aquifer withdrawals, returning 3.5 times more water to the aquifer than our data centers received from the utility.
Investing in Local Infrastructure
We are investing $114 million to strengthen local water and sewer infrastructure around New Carlisle: four miles of new watermain, four miles of new sewer lines, three new sewer lift stations, an elevated water storage tank, and water treatment plant upgrades that add meaningful additional capacity. These upgrades are fully funded by Amazon at no cost to local ratepayers and will be owned and operated by the utility for decades to come.