In its 2024 Environmental Report, published July 2, 2024, Google disclosed that its total greenhouse-gas emissions rose 13 percent year over year in 2023, which it attributed primarily to increased data center energy consumption and supply-chain emissions. The same report noted that Google’s water-replenishment projects offset an estimated 1 billion gallons of water, which it said represented 18 percent of its 2023 freshwater consumption - implying total freshwater consumption on the order of several billion gallons.
The disclosure was significant because it came directly from the company in an official report rather than from outside estimates, and because it cut against Google’s long-standing carbon-neutral and net-zero messaging. It became one of the most-cited first-party data points showing that the AI and cloud buildout was pushing a major operator’s emissions and water use up, not down, even as the company pursued aggressive replenishment and clean-energy goals.