Water
We have set a goal to become water positive in 2030.
Becoming water positive
Water is a vital resource for life on earth, and we strive to connect its management to technical expertise and responsibility that help ensure healthy aquatic ecosystems. Becoming water positive means that Meta will return more water than we consume in our operations through water restoration initiatives that address shared water challenges and support water stewardship in medium and high water stress watersheds where we operate. At the watershed level, we aim to restore 200% of consumption in high-water stress regions and 100% of consumption in medium-water stress regions.
Since 2017, Meta has funded over 40 water restoration projects across nine watersheds. In 2024 alone, these operational water restoration projects returned more than 1.6 billion gallons of water to high- and medium-water stress regions.
Every drop matters
Minimizing water use, being transparent with our water data and restoring water in water-stressed regions are key pillars of our water stewardship program.
Minimizing water use – With data centers generating the highest water consumption, we continuously strive to minimize water use, prioritize on-site water efficiency and plan for long-term resiliency.
Transparency – In addition to our annual sustainability report, we also publish detailed information on each of our water restoration projects in our annual Volumetric Water Benefits Report.
Water restoration – As we work toward achieving our water positive goal, we are investing in water conservation and restoration projects.
Restoring more water than we consume
Highlights from our recent projects supporting local watersheds
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N-Drip Irrigation Conversion in the Platte River Basin, Nebraska
The N-Drip Irrigation Conversion project focuses on enhancing water stewardship by converting 100 acres of cropland from traditional flood irrigation to advanced N-Drip precision drip irrigation systems. This transition aims to significantly reduce water withdrawals from the basin while maintaining crop yields, addressing the challenges posed by climate change-driven water scarcity, and increasing agricultural demand.
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Peatland Restoration in Liffey River Basin, Wicklow Mountains, Ireland
In collaboration with local partners and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Peatland Restoration project aims to restore 450 hectares of degraded blanket bogs, enhancing water storage capacity, protecting existing carbon stocks, reducing emissions, and increasing carbon sequestration potential.
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AI to address water scarcity
Through an agreement with FIDO Tech, Meta will fund the use of FIDO AI to reduce leakage across 300km of clean water pipeline network in the city of Farmington, New Mexico. The project will deliver an estimated 250 million gallons of water per year by identifying leaks and ranking them by size for effective prioritization and repair.
Building long-term resilience
We leverage digital twin models of our data center cooling systems to generate accurate estimates of short- and long-term water usage under current and projected operating conditions. These virtual representations of our systems allow us to take a detailed, data-driven approach to our capacity
planning, compliance monitoring and water efficiency project prioritization.
Collaborating to address the global water crisis
We’re work collectively as part of the Water Resilience Coalition of the UN CEO Water Mandate, focusing on corporate water stewardship.
Sustainability impact map
This map highlights our renewable energy procurement and deployment efforts worldwide, water stewardship efforts in the communities we operate in, and other sustainability features across our global portfolio of data centers.
2025 Sustainability Report
Learn more about our progress as we work to achieve net zero emissions across our value chain and become water positive in 2030.
