Data centers are often portrayed as heavy water users, competing with already scarce resources to cool their infrastructure. This perception is now firmly established. It is also, to a large extent, misleading.
The question seems straightforward: do data centers consume too much water? In reality, it is far more complex. Recent life-cycle assessments (LCAs) carried out on European infrastructure are reshaping the debate. They show that both the scale and the location of water impacts are widely misunderstood. Two identical data centers, built in different countries, can have significantly different water footprints.
Direct water consumption: A limited part of the picture
One finding stands out. In a data center powered by renewable electricity and using closed-loop cooling systems, on-site water consumption represents less than 0.1% of total water impact.
In other words, the metric most frequently discussed in public debate is also the least significant. The vast majority of water impact occurs elsewhere, in the production of materials and, above all, in electricity generation.
