Articles by Will
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Developing a True Pay-for-Performance Model for Green Infrastructure Delivery
Developing a True Pay-for-Performance Model for Green Infrastructure Delivery
Stormwater management has become one of the most expensive infrastructure challenges facing cities and counties. The…
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Building California’s next generation infrastructure
Building California’s next generation infrastructure
There are no shortage of dire warnings about the condition of the nation’s infrastructure. Every time “Infrastructure…
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Will Hewes shared thisIt was over a year ago that I started thinking about how companies could accelerate action on the crisis in the Colorado River Basin. The challenge is undoubtedly urgent. The river that serves 40 million people and irrigates more than 5 million acres of farmland in the western U.S. faces a roughly trillion-gallon gap between supply and demand. There’s no time to waste. That’s why today Amazon is launching the Colorado River Basin Collaborative with the Water Resilience Coalition to catalyze $100M in funding for water conservation by 2028. While the larger basin negotiations will undoubtedly take longer to resolve, there is much that we can do today. We’ve built a pipeline of pre-vetted projects throughout the basin from irrigation efficiency to water loss reduction and watershed restoration that are ready to fund. An investment of $100M won’t solve the basin’s problems, but it can go a long way to showing how companies can help support meaningful progress. If you’re a company that operates or has customers in the basin, join us in helping solve one of the world’s most urgent water challenges. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dx4m23g6
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Will Hewes shared thisLots of great data and progress to share today about water sustainability and data centers at Amazon. We’re 75% of the way to our goal of being water positive by 2030. We get there through three strategies: 💠 Reduce: We've improved our water efficiency by 52% since 2021 and are now 7 times more water-efficient than the industry average 💠 Reuse: We use reclaimed water (treated wastewater) across more buildings than any other data center company 💠 Replenish: We’ve announced over 50 water projects in the U.S. and around the world, expected to return more than 5.8 billion gallons annually once fully implemented, with many more in the works. Maybe my favorite stat is that even as we grew substantially in 2025, our total data center water use actually went down due to efficiency gains. Proof we can scale sustainably. Amazing work from all the people that contributed to this. More to come. https://lnkd.in/dGDhuuaN
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Will Hewes shared thisI can't believe it was just over a year ago that I was in Mexico City meeting with the water utility (SEGIAGUA) to discuss how we could help them reduce water loss and alleviate one of North America's most urgent water crises. In the short time since, we've worked with SEGIAGUA and Xylem to implement the first set of projects which are already reducing the water lost to leaks by more than 1.8 billion liters per year, more than 2x what we originally expected. And we have more work underway to build on this success. This great video details progress to date. You can see a longer version of it here: https://lnkd.in/gHvX-qRN This is just one of 45+ water replenishment projects we're supported around the world that are collectively returning more than 18 billion liters of water to communities every year. We're always looking to partner with others to scale these efforts and there's plenty of opportunity to expand the Mexico City work in particular. If any corporate water stewards or other funders are interested, please reach out.
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Will Hewes shared thisI could not have imagined when I started building a water sustainability strategy for Amazon seven years ago what would come of it. For the first time, we've got a summary of all the amazing work that's happened since then in one place. It's amazing to see all that's happened in a relatively short period of time from major gains in water efficiency to $1B+ of investment in public recycled water infrastructure to a replenishment program that is supporting communities and watersheds around the world. And there is much more to come. Thanks to all the partners internally and externally that have made this all possible. Beau Schilz, Emily Weiss, Laura Huff, Justine Mahler, Kara H. Hurst, Avinash Shekhar, P.E., Usman Khan, Sonora Hill, Marlies Michielssen, Jeff Goldberg, Lisa Hook https://lnkd.in/gTXbjnhYSpotlight: Protecting water resources - Amazon SustainabilitySpotlight: Protecting water resources - Amazon Sustainability
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Will Hewes shared thisEn route to GreenBiz 26 and happy to share several sessions focused on water resilience that I'll be taking part in. First, I’ll join a panel on Transforming water risk to resilience: Advancing Water Security by aligning Economic, Social, and Ecological Returns. This session will explore how aligning economic performance with social equity and ecosystem protection can help move the U.S. toward a more coordinated national water strategy. 📅 Wednesday, Feb 18 | 3:00–4:00pm More here: https://lnkd.in/g22Y7aUj Later that afternoon, I’ll speak on How Hyperscalers Are Addressing Water and Energy in Data Centers. We’ll dig into how data center operators are managing growing demand for water and energy, what tradeoffs we’re seeing in practice, and what sustainability teams need to know now. 📅 Wednesday, Feb 18 | 4:30–5:30pm Details: https://lnkd.in/gQB5SgDp Earlier in the day during lunch, I’ll also be moderating a roundtable discussion: How can companies accelerate collective action on shared water sustainability challenges? It’s one of many available tables, and a first come first served format designed for candid conversation and practical ideas. 📅 Wednesday, Feb 18 | 12:15–1:15pm GreenBiz brings together leaders across sustainability, finance, operations, and strategy. If you’re attending, I hope to see you there.
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Will Hewes shared thisWe're adding to the Amazon water replenishment team. If you have 5+ years of experience managing water projects and are excited about helping communities make their water resources more resilient, please apply! https://lnkd.in/eeDHBaC2 Update: Posting is live again at the link above. Please note that this job is based in Seattle, Northern Virginia, New York, or San Francisco and requires you to be in the office five days per week. There won't be flexibility on location or days in office.
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Will Hewes shared thisTraditional irrigation often relies on experience and observation. Now, farmers around the world are pairing that knowledge with real-time data from sensors and cloud-based tools to make every drop of water count. From Spanish almond orchards to Mississippi's Delta region to Brazilian farms, see how growers and technologists are collaborating to transform agricultural water use. Watch the full story: https://lnkd.in/eTWC6X_V
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Will Hewes shared thisThe growth of AI is one of the defining forces of our time - and with it comes the responsibility to manage resources wisely. There's great detail in this video about about how AWS balances energy and water in data center operations to minimize use of both resources. This approach has helped us improve water efficiency 40% in the past few years. Add to that our work to invest in recycled water systems and replenishment projects around the world, and there's lots of potential for AI to help society not just use less water, but use it better. More here: https://lnkd.in/gMBA8kiY
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Will Hewes shared thisWorried about how water resources will be impacted by AI? Excited about how AI can help transform the water sector and improve water resilience? Good news if you fall into either category: Today we announced the launch of a new Water-AI Nexus Center of Excellence. The center will share and advance best practices for water sustainability within data centers and accelerate development and adoption of innovative water technologies. We begin with a new report outlining four water sustainability principles for data center operations. Communities and the broader public can use these principles to assess whether a data center is using water sustainably. Much more to come. Big thanks to our partners in launching this, Water Environment Federation, Leading Utilities of the World, and The Water Center at Penn. Hat tip to Beau Schilz for leading the charge on this for Amazon and Ralph Erik Exton and John Ikeda for being great partners in making this happen. https://lnkd.in/gcEcu9nrWater-AI Nexus Center of Excellence | Water Environment FederationWater-AI Nexus Center of Excellence | Water Environment Federation
Will Hewes commented on a post
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Antoine, lots of good points here. One clarification: The Amazon - CO River initiative isn't actually a data center story at all. Amazon doesn't operate any water-cooled data centers in the basin. This project is about helping communities reliant on the CO River around our retail operations, not data centers. That's not by accident; data centers aren't abnormally large water users, less than 0.5% of industrial demand globally. If we're going to solve some of these big water challenges, we're going to need to get the other 99.5% of industrial water users (and other non-industrial parts of the private sector) to come to the table with funding. That's what we're trying to do with this effort.
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Will Hewes liked thisWill Hewes liked thisThe 750 million litres is the headline. The real value is catchment resilience. Restoring wetland function in Germany’s Vogelsberg region can help retain water in the landscape, support groundwater recharge and strengthen a critical water source for Frankfurt. That is where water stewardship creates lasting value: not simply replacing volume, but improving the resilience of the catchment that communities, ecosystems and businesses depend on. And that requires collective action. Amazon, Microsoft, NABU e.V. and local stakeholders are showing what shared investment in catchment resilience can look like. #WaterStewardship #CatchmentResilience #WaterSecurity #NatureBasedSolutions https://lnkd.in/euRWjAPR Marlies Michielssen Chelsea Merrick Jaime Negredo Kerstin Allen-Nachtigall Anna Bernadó Figuerola Ingo Ammermann Manuel V. Dillinger Will Hewes Emily WeissEmily WeissDr. Jana DorbandDr. Jana Dorband Michael Hanisch Paul Meaney Justine Mahler Alejandra Sanchez Ross Campbell Matthias ZwanzgerAmazon and Microsoft announce water replenishment project with NABU in GermanyAmazon and Microsoft announce water replenishment project with NABU in Germany
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Will Hewes liked thisWill Hewes liked thisLast week, during UNGA and Climate Week in New York, we announced a new collaboration with The Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative, Dalio Philanthropies, and XPRIZE. Water is finally moving toward the center of conversations about climate, food, energy, access, ecosystems, and economic growth. For those of us who have worked in this field for a long time, that shift is overdue. It also changes what's possible for Imagine H2O. Over 17 years and 270+ startups, we've learned that finding promising technologies is only part of the equation. The harder work follows: proving solutions in the field, finding the right customers, reducing technical and commercial risk, and turning an early deployment into something repeatable. Scale gets the headlines and the capital, but adoption is what makes scale possible. That gap between a working solution and its widespread use is where we operate. This partnership extends that work to a new group of innovators tackling water scarcity. We'll work with selected teams from the XPRIZE Water Scarcity competition and the Al Miyah Challenge to move their solutions from promising results to commercial adoption. Thank you to Ray Dalio and the Dalio Philanthropies team, Ayesha Al Ateeqi and the MBZWI team, and our partners at XPRIZE for their ambition and their trust in us. And thanks to the entrepreneurs, operators, funders, team members, and investors in our community who have helped us reach this milestone. More to come. #ClimateWeekNYC #MohamedBinZayedWI #XPRIZEWaterScarcity #WaterInnovation #UNGA81
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Will Hewes liked thisWill Hewes liked thisExcited to share Amazon’s latest water replenishment investment: a wetland restoration and groundwater recharge project with NABU e.V., Germany’s oldest and largest environmental NGO. The project will restore natural wetland conditions across 40 hectares in Hesse’s Vogelsberg region, a key water sourcing area for the City of Frankfurt. Once complete, it is expected to recharge 750 million liters of groundwater annually. It also marks Amazon and Microsoft's first jointly funded water replenishment project. By pooling resources, companies can help unlock larger-scale projects and deliver greater water benefits than we could achieve alone. Thank you to NABU and Microsoft for the collaboration. Link with project details in the comments. Ingo Ammermann Manuel V. Dillinger Maik Sommerhage Karin Flohr Scarlett S. Will Hewes Emily Weiss Chelsea Merrick Clare Biddle. MBA CChem Dr. Jana Dorband Michael Hanisch Brandon Oyer, PE Justine Mahler Kerstin Allen-Nachtigall Jaime Negredo Anna Bernadó Figuerola Alejandra Sanchez German Otalora Castro David Jaeckel, AICP Jo Klein
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Will Hewes liked thisWater security is a business imperative. @Amazon is putting real money behind that reality—helping launch a Colorado River Basin Collaborative with a goal of mobilizing $100 million in two years. Leadership doesn’t wait for a dysfunctional governance structure to get its act together. This is the private sector recognizing a shared challenge and putting resources behind solutions. What I especially like: companies funding vetted projects directly, with results tracked and a clear path for others to join. Doing well by doing right. I’m all sorts of here for it! #DCPnow 🌊 WaterCard PBC Sherman & Howard L.L.C. (now Taft) Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
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Will Hewes liked thisGreat news for the Colorado River! Together, as part of the Water Resilience Coalition and The Climate Pledge, Amazon, Grundfos, and The Coca-Cola Foundation today announced $32 million in funding to support water resilience across the basin, with a goal of catalyzing $100 million in funding. Will Hewes Meredith Popolo Venkat Iyer Annika Behm Gullstrand Matt Kistler.
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Will Hewes liked thisWill Hewes liked thisCelebrating announcements from Will Hewes at Amazon & the Water Resilience Coalition on the launch of the Colorado Basin Water Action Collaborative, which has already secured $32M in corporate commitments and is working toward a $100M goal. 👏 An encouraging reality is that many opportunities are ready for implementation today. There are more than 24 family farming operations in Arizona & California's Imperial Valley that have expressed interest in transitioning from flood irrigation to precision irrigation. 👩🌾 Together, these projects represent: • 14,000+ acres 🥬 • $52M in project costs (with farmers typically sharing in the cost) 💰 • 22,000+ acre-feet of annual water use reduction potential 💧 • $2 per cubic meter for corporate water stewardship leaders 🤝 Farmers are willing to invest in the long-term resilience of their operations & the Colorado River Basin. The opportunity is to connect that commitment with the resources needed to accelerate implementation. As momentum continues to build, let's keep spotlighting projects that are ready to deliver measurable water stewardship benefits today. What existing solutions are on your radar? #WaterStewardship #ColoradoRiver #Agriculture #Sustainability #PrecisionIrrigation
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Will Hewes liked thisWill Hewes liked thisI am looking forward to participating in The Climate Pledge session on, "Water is the Next Climate Risk You Can't Ignore" with Will Hewes from Amazon and Matt Kistler from the Water Resilience Coalition. Hope to see you at New York Climate week, much to discuss and accomplish. Onward Earth Finance Sonya Bengali Garrett Kephart Reuven Carlyle Camillus Fitzpatrick Jared Sheehan
Experience & Education
Publications
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Financial Innovations for Green Infrastructure
Table Rock Infrastructure Partners
See publicationCities and counties are looking for innovative ways to manage the stormwater that carries pollutants from streets, parking lots, and other impervious surface to surrounding waterways. In this paper, Table Rock outlines how public agencies can use green infrastructure, project finance, and partnerships with private property owners to dramatically reduce the cost and risk of stormwater management while also making communities more livable and resilient.
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How Governments Can Innovate, Attract Investment, and Improve Infrastructure Performance
Bay Area Council Economic Institute
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Weathering Change: Policy Reforms that Save Money and Make Communities Safer
American Rivers
See publicationIdentifies reforms to 10 major areas of federal policy that could encourage smarter investment in water infrastructure and ecosystem preservation and restoration to better protect communities from climate change.
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Natural Security: How Sustainable Water Strategies Prepare Communities for a Changing Climate
American Rivers
See publicationIdentifies eight communities that have prepared for a more volatile and uncertain climate by investing in innovative water infrastructure approaches.
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Chapter 5: Water Resources in Comprehensive Strategy for Reducing Maryland’s Vulnerability to Climate Change
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Co-author of Maryland's climate change adaptation strategy for water resources
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Jon Exel
Jon Exel
Clean-energy and blended-finance specialist with 25+ years of experience scaling renewable energy, distributed systems and clean-tech ventures across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and emerging markets. I combine an entrepreneurial background (founding and running renewable energy companies) with a senior World Bank career leading billion-dollar programs such as Nigeria Electrification, the Global Mini Grids Facility and the $1B ASCENT/TDB platform.<br><br>My focus: identifying high-growth companies, building aligned financing ecosystems (debt, equity, RBF, guarantees, climate capital), and accelerating technology-driven energy transition.<br><br>I work at the intersection of technology, finance and impact, applying first-principles thinking and end-user value creation to scale solutions that transform lives and markets.
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