water efficiency

The water efficiency tag covers Microsoft’s efforts to reduce water use in datacenters as cloud computing and AI demand grow. Current coverage focuses on water usage effectiveness (WUE), a metric measuring liters of water used per kilowatt-hour of computing. Microsoft reported that the average WUE of its owned datacenter fleet fell from 2.3 liters per kilowatt-hour in the early 2000s to 0.27 L/kWh in 2025. The discussion considers how more efficient infrastructure could help make hyperscale expansion more sustainable and politically acceptable, while highlighting the implications for Windows users, Azure customers, IT administrators, and communities near datacenter operations.