Exploring tech giant Amazon's approach to water stewardship

The United Nations' annual World Water Day observance took place on March 22, with a focus on supporting the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

In this episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we dive into the water stewardship practices at Amazon, one of the world's largest companies with a market cap of more than $2 trillion dollars. Amazon Water Sustainability Lead Will Hewes outlines the company's approach to water in the communities it serves and across Amazon's business lines, which range from e-commerce to online entertainment streaming services to grocery stores and cloud computing.

Will explains that one of the company's goals is to be "water positive" in its datacenter operations at Amazon Web Services by 2030 — meaning AWS aims to return more water to communities than it uses in direct operations.

Amazon operates in several countries and regions facing water-related challenges that are being exacerbated by climate change, and Will says the company is working with communities to support their adaptation efforts.

"We can't solve that entire crisis on our own, obviously," Will says. "But how can we help plug in and help support some of those adaptations that need to happen to make sure that communities and the environment still have water they need, when they need it?"

Read further research from S&P Global Sustainable1:

How climate change is exacerbating drought risks

For the world's largest companies, climate physical risks have a $1.2 trillion annual price tag by the 2050s

Learn more about S&P Global Sustainable1's climate physical risk dataset, which include financial calculations on water stress and drought risks, here.

Listen to our podcast episode featuring an interview with the CEO of Water.org here.

This piece was published by S&P Global Sustainable1, a part of S&P Global.

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