Salesforce.com, inc. | Report on risks related to human right to water at Salesforce.com, inc

Status
Filed
Previous AGM date
Resolution details
Company ticker
CRM
Lead filer
NorthStar Asset Management, Inc.
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Environment
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Digital rights
  • Water and oceans
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Technology
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Shareholders urge the Board of Directors to issue a report to shareholders on water supply risk, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, allowing investors to understand the magnitude and probability of water supply disruptions to operations, and any Company initiatives or strategies to mitigate new and existing water demands associated with the data centers it relies upon.
Whereas clause
Water scarcity poses significant business risks for Salesforce, Inc., particularly for data centers it relies on to expand its artificial intelligence (“AI”) capacities.

Critical to its strategy and financial goals, Salesforce’s reliance on data centers is further amplified by Einstein, its generative AI capability embedded across cloud products. In the 2024 annual report, CEO Marc Benioff highlighted, “We believe that this (AI) is the single most important moment in the history of the technology industry. As the world’s #1 CRM and now the #1 AI CRM, Salesforce is uniquely positioned to help our customers harness the unprecedented power of AI...”1

Training AI models demand significant water to cool data centers. Microsoft for instance, used approximately 700,000 liters of water to train GPT-3. By 2027, AI demand may require 4.2-6.6 billion cubic meters of water withdrawals annually—equivalent to California’s annual water use.

With 20% of U.S. data centers located in drought-prone areas, these operations exacerbate existing water stress.2 Salesforce’s water withdrawals from extremely high or high baseline water stress increased from 21% in 2022 to 35% in 2024.3 As AI workloads are expected to grow significantly by 2030, water scarcity risks are increasingly material to the company’s strategy.

While investors are aware of data center strategies to reduce water demand, Salesforce has not provided sufficient disclosure about risks and mitigation measures related to water scarcity. This lack of transparency prevents shareholders from fully understanding the materiality of such risks to the company’s long-term value. How will operations and financial performance be affected if drought and water stress compromise data center cooling capacities? As Salesforce expands AI capabilities, how will it collaborate with data center providers to ensure operations have no adverse effects on ground and surface water supplies for local communities?
Supporting statement
Shareholders recommend the report, at Board and management's discretion:

Assess and prioritize: vulnerabilities of current and planned data center locations; technical solutions to reduce demand for water in cooling; competing demands for water from
communities and agriculture;

Assess the risk that data centers in water stressed regions could trigger or contribute to regional water shortages; and
Disclose policies and plans to ensure sustainable supply of water for operations.

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