Amid a water crisis, the UK government has included a controversial tip in its list of domestic water-saving recommendations: delete emails and old photos to reduce data center water consumption.
The measure, announced by the Environmental Agency following a meeting of the National Drought Group, complements traditional actions such as fixing leaks, installing rainwater collection tanks, or taking shorter showers. The official reason: data centers use large amounts of water to cool servers, and reducing data storage could lower this demand.
However, the tech community and digital infrastructure experts question its actual effectiveness.
The true water use in a data center
Data centers utilize two main categories of cooling:
| Method | Water use | Features | Estimated consumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evaporative cooling | High | Uses cooling towers that evaporate water to lower temperature | Between 4 and 8 liters per kWh processed |
| Closed-circuit cooling | Low | Recirculates water with minimal losses | <0.2 liters per kWh |
| Free cooling (outside air) | None | Uses ambient air for cooling | 0 liters per kWh |
| Liquid immersion | Very low | Components submerged in dielectric fluids | 0 liters of water (does not use potable water) |
The majority of water consumption comes from cooling equipment during heavy operations (AI processing, rendering, simulations). Passive data storage, like old emails or archived photos, generates minimal heat and is usually stored on disks that can enter low-power states, so its impact on cooling is marginal.
In some cases, actively searching, accessing, and mass deleting data might even temporarily increase computational load, thereby raising energy and water consumption.
International precedents: it’s not the first time
The UK isn’t alone in making such recommendations:
- France (2022): During an energy crisis, the Ministry of Ecological Transition asked citizens to clean out their email inboxes to cut server electricity use.
- Italy (2022): During a drought in Lombardy, local authorities included deleting cloud files as a measure to “lighten” data centers.
- Japan (2021): Corporate campaigns encouraged companies to limit video storage to reduce their carbon footprint.
In all these cases, the critique was the same: the direct impact of these actions on water or energy consumption is minimal, and real solutions require changes in infrastructure, efficiency, and regulation.
UK’s official recommendations
Besides the digital tip, the British government suggests more impactful, data-backed measures to reduce domestic water use:
- Install rainwater collection tanks to water gardens.
- Fix leaking toilets that can waste between 200 and 400 liters daily.
- Reuse household water, like water used for washing vegetables, for irrigation.
- Avoid watering the lawn, which recovers naturally after dry periods.
- Turn off the tap when brushing teeth or shaving.
- Shorten shower times.
The core issue: the water footprint of AI and the cloud
The debate about deleting emails to save water connects to a larger challenge: the rapid growth of water and energy consumption associated with cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
- Training large-scale AI models can require millions of liters of water, depending on the cooling method and data center location.
- Companies like Microsoft and Google have reported over 30% increases in water consumption between 2021 and 2023, partly due to expanding generative AI workloads.
- Water resource pressures are especially concerning in regions already experiencing water stress, such as California, northern England, or parts of the Mediterranean.
Towards real solutions: technology and regulation
To significantly reduce data center water impact, measures include:
- Switching to closed-circuit or liquid immersion cooling to cut or eliminate the use of potable water.
- Using recycled or non-potable water for evaporative systems.
- Optimizing workload placement, shifting high-intensity processes to times of lower thermal stress or locations with abundant water resources.
- Incorporating water usage metrics into ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) audits for tech companies.
More than a symbolic gesture
While advising people to delete emails and photos may be seen as raising awareness about the digital world’s environmental impact, its real impact is minimal. Experts believe true change will come through investments in sustainable cooling infrastructure, efficiency policies, and regulations requiring transparency and reduction of the tech sector’s water footprint.
As artificial intelligence and cloud services continue to grow, the conversation about water and technology is only just beginning.
via: Messenger.es