To set appropriate goal posts, it shouldn't just the total water/energy usage from start to finish: it's that, relative to the local regions they're being extra

To set appropriate goal posts, it shouldn't just the total water/energy usage from start to finish: it's that, relative to the local regions they're being extracted from. Are those local regions at risk of being overused? Focusing on water, Google does reports on their total water withdrawal at all their data centers. It was around 10 billion gallons per year in 2024. That's around 0.03% of water usage in the US (that's just for rough context - not all of Google's data centers are in the US). I don't think that's an eye-popping amount. But when you consider that more than 1 billion gallons came from Council Bluffs, IA, you have to make sure that's being done responsibly, and that the local ecology can support it. Google admits that 28% of their water use comes from sources with "medium to high risk of depletion or scarcity." [0] [0]: https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/google-2025-environmental-report.pdf https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/google-2025-e...