Carrier has called for a major industry-wide commitment to public education to address conflicting figures and online misconceptions surrounding data centre water usage. As digital infrastructure becomes a key focus of national and local policy debates, Carrier emphasises that public understanding must be grounded in objective data.
Recent public discussions, including proposals by political parties for a temporary moratorium on new data centre approvals in England, have intensified scrutiny on how these facilities consume energy and water. While resource management is essential to industrial planning, sweeping pauses could affect investment decisions and the UK’s ability to develop domestic digital infrastructure. The debate highlights a clear gap in public information regarding how modern facilities operate.
To address this gap, Carrier points to verified findings from techUK and the Environment Agency, which surveyed 73 facilities across England. The data reveals that 51% of these data centres use completely waterless cooling systems, meaning they require no water to manage heat. Furthermore, 64% of the commercial facilities surveyed consume less than 10,000m3 of water annually, a consumption rate lower than a standard local leisure centre. These findings show that a substantial proportion of surveyed facilities rely on waterless cooling or maintain low annual water consumption rates as benchmarked in the techUK report, challenging the widespread perception that data centres are inherently wasteful.
“At Carrier, we maintain that sustainable digital growth and environmental stewardship must go hand in hand,” says Oliver Sanders, Commercial Director, Data Centres at Carrier. “With computing demands rising, public education is essential to correct conflicting figures and online misinformation. The situation with water use is not as cut and dry as it appears. By committing to open transparency and measuring our environmental impact, our industry can replace speculation with verifiable facts.”
Carrier is calling on data centre operators to commit to measuring and reporting water use efficiency metrics openly. By establishing strong public-private partnerships and ensuring early coordination between developers, water companies, and local authorities, the industry can support sustainable development while reducing the pressure that digital expansion places on water resources.
Learn more about Carrier’s commitment to improving thermal cooling efficiency in data centres at www.carrier.uk/en/commercial/data-centres.html