How Veolia plans to power sustainable AI data centres

According to Viola’s CFO, Emmanuelle Menning, AI and digital innovation will form the cornerstone of Veolia’s next efficiency plan. Earlier this year, the company laid out its plans to target more than €1 billion in annual revenue in the clean technology market by 2030. Specifically targeting data centres and chip manufacturing, Veolia – although traditionally known as a waste company – is eager to confront rising demand for integrated solutions amid energy constraints across Europe.

Speaking at Veolia’s London event earlier this year, a panel discussion explored how data centres and microelectronics infrastructure can be scaled sustainably.

Confronting surging demand

As Veolia positions itself as a strategic digital infrastructure partner, it finds itself in an environment of rising demand for data centre and microelectronics services. To turn these challenges into growth opportunities, Richard Kirkman, CEO of Northern Europe and chief growth officer at Veolia, explained how the company is focused on what its customers and their projects need on the ground.

“It’s a £25 billion sector in the UK, powered by algorithms but fuelled by available space, water and electricity,” he said. “We have to conserve resources to support growth, as they currently aren’t sufficient. Our estimates suggest that around 50% of the cost base of AI is tied to on-the-ground resources.”

To that end, innovation that can deliver resource efficiency is critical, and Veolia is enabling this with a circular economy approach. Kirkman explained the company’s belief in using its technology in a way that is relatable to local populations.

“You’ve heard about our hazardous waste treatment for PFAS, our ultra-pure water capabilities, how we can convert heat into cooling and develop novel sources of power and energy,” he said. “These are framed within a circular economy, with a low footprint and net-zero approach.”

Resource scarcity is a big consideration in the data centre industry. According to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, these facilities can be “resource-ravenous” and consume as much water as a small town, requiring up to five million gallons every day.

To make its infrastructure more resilient and reduce water and energy consumption in its data centres, Will Hewes, global lead for water sustainability at AWS, explained how the technology giant has been working towards being powered by 100% renewable energy by 2030 – a goal it met seven years early.

“We’re working to operate with resilient energy systems. We continue to invest in carbon-free energy with over 700 projects to date.”

He added: “We aim to return more water to communities than we use. We do this through three pillars: reduce, reuse and replenish. We’ve improved water efficiency by 40% in recent years and we’re about 82% more efficient than the industry average.”

To enable this, AWS has invested more than $1 billion in public water infrastructure, which Hewes said strengthens community resilience against drought.

“Wherever possible, we switch to recycled water that doesn’t compete with community supply,” he explained. “After maximising this, we focus on replenishment – funding projects that restore water in communities and watersheds. In India and Indonesia, we’ve supported water and sanitation access in drought-prone areas, including technologies that optimise irrigation.”

Partnerships are critical for responsible growth

To support AWS, Hewes said the company requires Veolia’s expertise to help expand its use of recycled water. At a new data centre in Mississippi for example, AWS is planning to switch entirely to recycled water by 2027, using a ‘water-as-a-service’ model.

“Since public infrastructure isn’t yet sufficient, we’re working with Veolia to further treat wastewater so it’s safe for use. Veolia handles treatment and operations, and we purchase the water.”

Not only does this enable AWS to prioritise sustainability, it ensures Veolia can address the needs of industry and community alike. The company seeks to move ‘beyond the lab’ to provide real-world solutions. “Together, cross-fertilisation, combination, and scale allow us to deliver something distinctive,” Kirkman said.

Glen Vicevic, CTO of water technologies at Veolia, added that the company focuses on maximising existing infrastructure, either through improved operations or by deploying advanced technologies, to facilitate innovation.

“We can ‘turbocharge’ assets to increase capacity or install hollow-fibre filtration membranes to transform wastewater plants into water reuse facilities,” he said. “We offer customers flexible solutions for today while helping them plan for the future, while also understanding how industries use water.”

Why water changes everything

Veolia has designed and delivered nearly 400 ultra-pure water facilities for critical industry sectors and now, with its refined expertise, sees itself as a bridge for future opportunities. With sectors like data centre water usage being subject to much debate last year, and the semiconductor industry requiring high water purity, Veolia has adopted a ‘partnering for progress in quality’ mentality moving forward.

“We’ve advanced electrodeionisation systems and recently launched E-Cell solutions that achieve even lower contamination levels,” Vicevic said. “We’re also developing a microelectronics innovation centre in Singapore, including R&D labs and cleanrooms. This will support collaboration with partners to develop next-generation solutions.”

He added: “We know the challenge is significant, but we’re committed to solving it together.”

From a partner perspective, Hewes explained how the AWS/Veolia partnership in Mexico City is a blueprint for what the technology giant wants to emulate worldwide – specifically with companies like Veolia that have strong existing relationships with water utilities and local communities.

“We work with utilities to improve efficiency. In Mexico City, we’ve helped deploy technology to optimise pressure and detect leaks, saving billions of litres,” he added. “We aim to replicate this globally. Veolia could be a strong partner due to its relationships with utilities and understanding of local needs. Together, we can accelerate innovation and scale solutions.”

At the time of writing AWS has launched more than 45 replenishment projects and restored 18 billion litres of water.

“The goal is not just to meet our water-positive target, but to advance the technologies needed to solve global water challenges,” Hewes said.

Taking the ‘human-centric’ approach to innovation

There is a human-centric approach to what Veolia does, as company CIO Stuart Stock explained. “This comes in two modes: a standard mode providing answers and a training mode that guides users through problem-solving to build their understanding,” he explained.

Veolia is eager to harness AI to confront critical challenges. Since 2017, it has pioneered AI-driven operational services to help offset the carbon footprint associated with Gen AI.

“We have a global governance model to ensure responsible AI use, prioritising high-value applications and avoiding unnecessary use of LLMs where simpler tools suffice,” Stuart Stock, CIO at Veolia added. “We use a middleware layer to manage prompts and rely on knowledge bases rather than training models ourselves, reducing resource consumption.”

Looking ahead, in a geopolitically challenged and resource-constrained world, Veolia wants to avoid being a bystander.

“We’re at a unique moment. Innovation is essential, but it must be grounded in listening to customers and anticipating future needs,” Kirkman said. “We focus on understanding strategic direction, regulatory trends and resource pathways, then responding with integrated solutions – combining cross-sector expertise, operational synergies, and data insights.”

He added: “It’s an exciting time, and we’re ready to accelerate.”

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This feature formed part of the Datacloud Global Congress special edition of Capacity Magazine. Read it HERE.

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