Here’s an interesting stat from Data Center Knowledge this week. A 15-megawatt data center can use up to 360,000 gallons of water for cooling… each day. That’s enough to fill 7,200 standard-sized, 50-gallon bathtubs.

It’s for this reason, and growing demand for data centers, that the Carbon Disclosure Project is now pushing for companies to report their water consumption in addition to their carbon footprint. (They’ve had some pretty good success with the latter.) It’s also an opportunity for IBM and Oracle, both of which have been making waves (punny!) in the water management space.

Photo credit: foshydog’s photostream