Tag Archives: Sustainability

An Interspecies Assembly in New York

Biodiversity is collapsing, sea levels are rising, and weather is becoming more extreme and unpredictable. Human activity is now unequivocally linked to climate change and its consequences. The question stands: Is the planet’s ecological turmoil a result of our unwillingness to listen to the wants and needs of other species? 


This year at the United Nations General Assembly, the annual gathering of world leaders and representatives across humanity to address and act on our planet’s most urgent crises, we decided to open the first ever Interspecies Assembly. Created in collaboration with eight cultural organizations, the new interactive digital hub on Google Arts & Culture brings the representatives and voices of other life forms into the discussions and decisions around the changing environment. The simple mission: to foster friendly relationships among species, in the hopes of paving a way for a truly safe and sustainable future. 


Interspecies Assembly by SUPERFLEX for ART 2030 will be presented in two parts. In Central Park, there will be a gathering site also entitled Interspecies Assembly, marked by a series of pink stone sculptures arranged in a broken circle. It invites visitors of all species to enter and exit from any direction. Engraved across the sculptures is an “Interspecies Contract,” which suggests a new code of conduct for humans, based on what we call Interspecies Ethics. It asks the human participant, as an example, to give a moment of their time to other species, done by ‘idling’ for five minutes to cultivate awareness for the many different life forms that surround us every day.
Image of the UN building at night with a colorful projection on its side.

Visualisation of Vertical Migration , SUPERFLEX, 2021. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Hosting an interspecies discussion

In addition, we have invited the first non-human representative directly to the United Nations to participate in the high-level discussions conducted during the film Vertical Migration. The protagonist of this film is a computer-generated siphonophore, an order of marine animals from the deep sea. These are fascinating creatures that are unfamiliar to many of us — they vary wildly in size, from the slightness of a fingernail to the length of a whale and look nothing like what we find on land. They also have bodies quite different to what we know: they are composed of many individual zoids that work in harmony as a society to survive. Perhaps, if we can see and feel from the perspective of a siphonophore, we can also find inspiration for how we approach the world around us.

Image of a gleaming blue jellyfish breaking a water surface

Bluebottle I | Matty Smith | Underwater Earth

This delegation will also extend their voyage, from the depths of the oceans to the United Nations to you. Together with Google Arts & Culture, ART 2030 and Kollision, we are making the siphonophore from Vertical Migration come to life through Augmented Reality, for an intimate encounter with this marine species.

An grey amorphous AR model hovering over a wooden table

AR model | Vertical Migration's Siphonophore | SUPERFLEX in collaboration with Kollision | ART 2030

Check out the online exhibition

Also on Google Arts & Culture, a new digital exhibitionis bringing together contributions from museums and scientific institutions and encouraging you to learn about what makes this creature so special and the importance of biodiversity. You can explore it atg.co/siphonophore

Faced with the spectre of the siphonophore, we hope it sparks a recognition that we are all connected, that our actions affect each other and that we all share a common fate.


Our commitment to water stewardship

I grew up in Muir Beach, California, and was fortunate to spend my childhood exploring its beautiful forests and streams. Today, these delicate ecosystems are threatened as the entire west coast of the U.S. is experiencing one of the worst droughts in recorded history. Unfortunately, this problem extends beyond the stretch of coastline I call home. Climate change is exacerbating water scarcity challenges around the world as places suffer from diminished rainfall — from Brazil's semi-arid region to Sub-saharan Africa. At the same time, we’ve seen strong storms bring devastating floods to places like the eastern U.S., central China, and western Germany.

Last September, we announced our third and most ambitious decade of climate action and laid out our plan toward a carbon-free future. Building on this commitment, we are pledging to a water stewardship target to replenish more water than we consume by 2030 and support water security in communities where we operate. This means Google will replenish 120% of the water we consume, on average, across our offices and data centers. We’re focusing on three areas: enhancing our stewardship of water resources across Google office campuses and data centers, replenishing our water use and improving watershed health and ecosystems in water-stressed communities; sharing technology and tools that help everyone predict, prevent and recover from water stress.


Managing the water we use responsibly

We use water to cool the data centers that make products like Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and Search possible. Over the years, we've taken steps to address and improve our operational water sustainability. For example, we deployed technology that uses reclaimed wastewater to cool our data center in Douglas County, Georgia. At our office campuses in the San Francisco Bay Area, we worked with ecologists and landscape architects to develop an ecological design strategy and habitat guidelines to improve the resiliency of landscapes and nearby watershed health. This included implementing drip irrigation, using watering systems that adjust to local weather conditions, and fostering diverse landscapes on our campuses that can withstand the stresses of climate change. 

Our water stewardship journey will involve continuously enhancing our water use and consumption. At our data centers, we’ll identify opportunities to use freshwater alternatives where possible — whether that's seawater or reclaimed wastewater. When it comes to our office campuses, we’re looking to use more on-site water sources — such as collected stormwater and treated wastewater — to meet our non-potable water needs like landscape irrigation, cooling and toilet flushing.


Investing in community water security and healthy ecosystems

Water security is an issue that goes beyond our operations, and it’s not something we can solve alone. In partnership with others, we’ll invest in community projects that replenish 120% of the water we consume, on average, across all Google offices and data centers, and that improve the health of the local watersheds where our office campuses and data centers are located. 

Typically, the water we all use every day comes from local watersheds — areas of land where local precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as a river, bay or other receiving body of water. There are several ways to determine whether a watershed is sustainable including measuring water quality and availability and community access to the water. 

We’ll focus on solutions that address local water and watershed challenges. For example, we’re working with the Colorado River Indian Tribes project to reduce the amount of water that is withdrawn from Lake Mead reservoir on the Colorado River in Nevada and Arizona. In Dublin, Ireland, we’re installing rainwater harvesting systems to reduce stormwater flows to improve water quality in the River Liffey and the Dublin Bay. And in Los Angeles, we’re investing in efforts to remove water-thirsty invasive species to help the nearby ecosystem in the San Gabriel mountains.


Using data tools to predict and prevent water stress

Communities, policymakers and planners all need tools to measure and predict water availability and water needs. We’re dedicated to working with partners to make those tools and technologies universally accessible. To that end, we’ve recently worked with others on these water management efforts: 


  • Partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to create the Freshwater Ecosystems Explorer. This tool tracks surface water changes over time on a national and local scale. 

  • Co-developed the web application OpenET with academic and government researchers to make satellite-based data that shows how and where water moves when it evaporates available to farmers, landowners and water managers.

  • Provided Google.org funding for Global Water Watch and Windward Fund’s BlueConduit. Global Water Watch provides real-time indicators for current and future water management needs, and was built in partnership with Google.org, WRI, WWF and Deltares. BlueConduit quantifies and maps hazardous lead service lines, making it easier to replace water infrastructure in vulnerable communities.

When it comes to protecting the future of our planet and the resources we rely on, there’s a lot to be done. We’ll keep looking for ways we can use our products and expertise to be good water stewards and partner with others to address these critical and shared water challenges. 


A new training programme to help small businesses reduce their carbon emissions

The climate crisis is an urgent issue for everyone. The UK government has set an ambitious target to reach net zero by 2050 and all businesses of all sizes need to play a part if we’re to reach those goals. 

This is not just about doing the right thing — today’s consumers expect action: according to research from Edelman, 80% of people want brands to solve society’s problems. 


Small businesses make up 99% of the UK’s business community so they’ll play a crucial role in reaching net zero. Yet, understandably, small businesses don’t always have the time, resources or expertise to dedicate to this — especially as they focus on recovery from the pandemic. A study from the British Chambers of Commerce and O2 found that only one in 10 small businesses are measuring their carbon footprint, and a fifth of small businesses don't fully understand the term "net zero". Cost, and an ability to understand, measure and report emissions are cited as two of the main barriers to change. 


Sustainability training for small businesses


To help small businesses overcome these obstacles, we’re announcing a new free, simple and actionable training programme to help SMEs reduce their emissions. We developed the training in partnership with leading sustainability and net zero certification group, Planet Mark, as part of the UK Government’s Together for our Planet Business Climate Leaders campaign, which encourages small businesses to commit to cutting their emissions in half by 2030 and to net zero by 2050. 


Our training is designed for small businesses starting their journey towards sustainability, with an emphasis on how a sustainability strategy can help drive business performance. It sets out the business case and imperative for cutting emissions, and explains practical, digitally-focused ways to decarbonize — from using paperless billing and Cloud-enabled technology, to renewable energy sourcing and supply chains. Since we know how much consumers care about this, it also covers how small businesses can use their sustainability credentials to differentiate. 


One business already doing this successfully is catering company, Fooditude. They made tangible changes to their business, like limiting their food waste, going paperless with admin systems and swapping to local suppliers, and reduced their emissions by over 30% per meal. Dean Kennett, Fooditude’s Managing Director, attributes £3 million in new revenue to their new sustainability credentials, as well as their ability to hire staff who share their values, and a shared purpose among employees. 

Swati Deshpande, part of the team at Fooditude

Swati Deshpande, part of the team at Fooditude

We’ll deliver the training through the Google Digital Garage, building on our experience of coaching more than 650,000 people and small businesses in the UK in digital and business skills. And we’ll lean on our expertise as leaders on climate change for over two decades, from becoming carbon neutral in 2007 to our latest and most ambitious commitment to become the first major company to operate on carbon-free energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.


We’re encouraging companies who complete the training to make a commitment to going net zero by signing up to the SME Climate Commitment, which can be found on the UK Business Climate Hub. Businesses who sign up and share their commitments will be recognized by the United Nations Race to Zero campaign initiative and inspire other businesses to take action. 


Helping SMEs track carbon emissions


Measuring carbon emissions accurately is essential if small businesses are to know if their actions make a difference, but most small businesses can’t do this alone.  That’s why we’re supporting Normative, the software platform behind the SME Climate Commitment, to help businesses track and account for their carbon emissions, making climate mitigation easier and actionable. Over the next six months, as part of the Google.org Fellowship, we’ll provide a team of 11 Googlers to work full-time, pro bono, to assist Normative with building the technical infrastructure that underpins the free-to-access platform. Normative was one of the organisations to receive a €1M grant through the Google.org Impact Challenge on Climate, which funds bold ideas that aim to use technology to accelerate Europe’s progress toward a greener, more resilient future.


We’re optimistic that by supporting organisations and technologies like these we can help small businesses make the journey towards a carbon-free future. 


How to sign up


Small businesses can sign up to the training here. 


A blueprint for clean energy in Europe

Imagine a world where you could decarbonize your business just by asking your energy provider to do so. That’s exactly what we’re setting out to do at Google: to show it can be done, but more importantly, to make it easier for others to do the same.

Today’s agreement with ENGIE, a large European utility, is helping us do just this. As part of our broader announcement that, between now (2021) and 2030, Google will be investing approximately 1 billion euros in digital infrastructure and clean energy in Germany, Google has signed a first-of-its-kind agreement in Europe to purchase the clean energy that will help ensure that our operations in Germany will operate at nearly 80% carbon-free energy on an hourly basis beginning in 2022. In line with our 2030 commitment to operate on carbon-free energy 24/7 at all our campuses and data centers worldwide, we will continue to work to increase this percentage to 100%.

Beyond our own goals, this agreement establishes a roadmap for other companies to follow as we work together to decarbonize electricity use and support Europe’s green recovery. 


A new way to buy and sell clean energy

Sourcing carbon-free energy every hour of the day is an incredibly difficult task and will require innovative technological and contractual solutions. In 2010, Google became an early pioneer of purchasing carbon-free energy through individual Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), complex arrangements that not all energy customers are able to use. Companies can also purchase clean energy via unbundled Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs), which historically have a limited impact on driving clean energy deployment, though we are working to change that. To completely decarbonize our operations -- and to make it easier for other organizations to do the same -- we are working with our partners to rethink how we buy carbon-free electricity.

Under the terms of the agreement we are announcing today, ENGIE will assemble and develop a carbon-free energy portfolio on Google’s behalf that has the ability to flex and grow as our needs change in the region. 

Jointly with ENGIE, Google will purchase electricity from 23 renewable energy projects in five German states. Some will be newly-built from scratch. Others (such as existing onshore wind projects that will no longer receive national subsidy support) will see their life extended, so they continue to produce clean electricity instead of being dismantled. By working with our energy suppliers to transform the way clean energy is delivered to customers, Google is supporting Germany's decarbonization goals.


A greener cloud for Germany and beyond

Together with today’s announcements of a new cloud region in Berlin-Brandenburg and the expansion of our existing cloud region in Frankfurt, we are pleased to continue delivering one of the cleanest clouds in the industry to our customers. More and more companies are incorporating environmental, social and governance targetsinto their technology strategies. We’re committed to help  IT organizations, and our users, take action today to lower the carbon emissions of their cloud applications. Because of this agreement, European customers will have another low-carbon option where they can run their cloud workloads.  


We are excited to add more projects like this in the coming years and continue to work on solutions to reach Google’s ambition to operate on carbon-free energy every hour of every day by 2030, all while supporting Europe’s green transition. Already today, two thirds (67%) of our energy needs are met with locally sourced clean energy on an hourly basis. We will continue to report on our progress, and to share tools and best practices with the wider industry to advance decarbonization on a global scale.

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New progress toward our 24/7 carbon-free energy goal

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A blueprint for clean energy in Europe

Imagine a world where you could decarbonize your business just by asking your energy provider to do so. That’s exactly what we’re setting out to do at Google: to show it can be done, but more importantly, to make it easier for others to do the same.

Today’s agreement with ENGIE, a large European utility, is helping us do just this. As part of our broader announcement that, between now (2021) and 2030, Google will be investing approximately 1 billion euros in digital infrastructure and clean energy in Germany, Google has signed a first-of-its-kind agreement in Europe to purchase the clean energy that will help ensure that our operations in Germany will operate at nearly 80% carbon-free energy on an hourly basis beginning in 2022. In line with our 2030 commitment to operate on carbon-free energy 24/7 at all our campuses and data centers worldwide, we will continue to work to increase this percentage to 100%.

Beyond our own goals, this agreement establishes a roadmap for other companies to follow as we work together to decarbonize electricity use and support Europe’s green recovery. 


A new way to buy and sell clean energy

Sourcing carbon-free energy every hour of the day is an incredibly difficult task and will require innovative technological and contractual solutions. In 2010, Google became an early pioneer of purchasing carbon-free energy through individual Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), complex arrangements that not all energy customers are able to use. Companies can also purchase clean energy via unbundled Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs), which historically have a limited impact on driving clean energy deployment, though we are working to change that. To completely decarbonize our operations -- and to make it easier for other organizations to do the same -- we are working with our partners to rethink how we buy carbon-free electricity.

Under the terms of the agreement we are announcing today, ENGIE will assemble and develop a carbon-free energy portfolio on Google’s behalf that has the ability to flex and grow as our needs change in the region. 

Jointly with ENGIE, Google will purchase electricity from 23 renewable energy projects in five German states. Some will be newly-built from scratch. Others (such as existing onshore wind projects that will no longer receive national subsidy support) will see their life extended, so they continue to produce clean electricity instead of being dismantled. By working with our energy suppliers to transform the way clean energy is delivered to customers, Google is supporting Germany's decarbonization goals.


A greener cloud for Germany and beyond

Together with today’s announcements of a new cloud region in Berlin-Brandenburg and the expansion of our existing cloud region in Frankfurt, we are pleased to continue delivering one of the cleanest clouds in the industry to our customers. More and more companies are incorporating environmental, social and governance targetsinto their technology strategies. We’re committed to help  IT organizations, and our users, take action today to lower the carbon emissions of their cloud applications. Because of this agreement, European customers will have another low-carbon option where they can run their cloud workloads.  


We are excited to add more projects like this in the coming years and continue to work on solutions to reach Google’s ambition to operate on carbon-free energy every hour of every day by 2030, all while supporting Europe’s green transition. Already today, two thirds (67%) of our energy needs are met with locally sourced clean energy on an hourly basis. We will continue to report on our progress, and to share tools and best practices with the wider industry to advance decarbonization on a global scale.

Related Article

New progress toward our 24/7 carbon-free energy goal

We aim to operate entirely on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030. Here's what we're doing to make that happen.

Read Article

Doing our part for California’s monarch butterflies

We’re always looking for ways to use our technology and resources to protect the planet and support our communities. This means setting moonshot goals — like operating entirely on carbon-free energy, every hour of every day by 2030, and it also means working together with governments and nonprofits, to address urgent and local sustainability issues in creative ways. 


Since 2014, we’ve been using our campuses to support wildlife and our communities. Our Ecology Program has created over 13 acres of new site-appropriate habitat on our campuses, with dozens more in the works.


As part of this work, we’re taking steps to help address the threat facing California’s monarch butterflies. Last year, California only saw 2,000 monarch butterflies during the winter: a 99.9% decline from the millions of monarchsthat visited the state in the 1980s and over a 90% decline just from 2019, when 29,000 monarchs were identified. Unfortunately, increased development, climate change and pesticides are all contributing to the rapid decline of the once-plentiful monarchs.  This threatens the species as well as the crops we eat and the entire ecosystems that the monarchs call home. 


We’re building on the state of California’s conservation efforts with $1 million to help restore and enhance an additional 600 acres of habitat for monarchs and other pollinators across California, including creating more habitat on our own campuses. Monarchs need more habitat to support their repopulation and migration, which means protecting and restoring key sites on the coast and adding more native milkweed and nectar plants in priority areas across the state.

Image of a monarch butterfly, flying over a green plant with a blue sky in the background.

 A monarch butterfly flies over a narrowleaf milkweed plant in California.

Google will spend $500,000 to create new monarch and other pollinator habitat on our Bay Area and Southern California campuses. And Google.org is granting $500,000 across the Xerces Society and Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), to help protect and restore hundreds of acres of important monarch habitat where it matters most across California, including habitat restoration south of San José in coordination with the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. 


We’ll also be sponsoring research to understand the science behind why the monarch population is crashing and will be monitoring monarchs on our Bay Area campuses to observe their habitat use, sharing our findings with local organizations and agency scientists to help identify other potential efforts that can reverse the trend.  


This week, not coincidentally, is National Pollinator Week. We hope today’s news raises awareness of the plight of the monarch butterfly, and encourages others to contribute to save this critical and beautiful fixture in the backyards, parks, farms and wildlands of our home state.

Photos courtesy Xerces Society

A marine biologist uses Maps to explore under the sea

Just under the water lies one of the biggest mysteries of the Great Barrier Reef: blue holes. These underwater sinkholes give researchers a rare look at ocean life and how we can protect it. Until a few years ago, only two blue holes were documented in the entirety of the Great Barrier Reef — they are hard to find and even harder to get to. 

With the help of Google Maps, marine biologist Johnny Gaskell and a team of researchers are finding previously unknown blue holes. In 2017, after witnessing Cyclone Debbie destroy many of the reefs in its path, he set out to find more blue holes. Home to hundreds of species of coral and serving as a protective waters for larger marine life, these formations give scientists a view of history buried in undisturbed sediment layers and clues about  how to better protect coral reefs. 

Using Google Maps’ satellite view, Johnny followed the cyclone’s path to pinpoint areas along the reef that might have been spared from damage. That’s when he spotted perfect circles along the reef, indicating a potential blue hole. The formation he identified was south of the Whitsundays in the Hard Line Reefs, a difficult-to-reach area of the Great Barrier Reef that’s dangerous to navigate. Despite this, Johnny and a team of divers headed out into the unknown, unsure of what — if anything — awaited them.

There’s still so many spots out in the Great Barrier Reef that are unexplored. Johnny Gaskell
Marine Biologist

With the satellite view of Google Maps on their phones, they navigated their boats through narrow channels in unsurveyed waters until the blue dot on their map was directly over the blue hole. Johnny dove in and found healthy coral formations that have sat undisturbed, possibly for centuries. Along the edges were delicate birdsnest corals, vibrant giant clams and huge branching staghorn corals. In the stillness of the blue hole’s center, there were green sea turtles, giant trevally and sharks that all called the dark, cool water home. 

  • An aerial image of a dark blue hole surrounded by lighter water.

    Using Google Maps’ satellite view, Johnny spotted perfect circles along the reef, indicating a potential blue hole. These rare underwater sinkholes offer vital information about life in the ocean. 

  • Johnny stands on the edge of the boat in a wetsuit, snorkeling gear and flippers.

    Once they navigated to where they thought the blue hole was, Johnny dove in.  

  • Johnny swimming over a coral formation surrounded by fish.

    Underwater were healthy coral formations.

  • Image of pink coral surrounded by a couple of brightly colored fish.

    Home to over 400 species of hard coral, like these, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on earth.

  • Johnny swims above the coral capturing images on an underwater camera.

    Scientists use the layers of sediment that collect at the bottom of blue holes to learn information about conditions in the past.

  • Bright blue fish swim around the yellow coral.

     Blue holes are biodiversity hotspots. Here, fish swim around the bright yellow coral. 

  • Johnny in his wetsuit holds up the camera showing a picture he took of the underwater coral.

    Johnny captured images of the blue hole to help create a snapshot of reef conditions. 

With the help of Google Maps, a discovery that would have taken years of underwater exploration on the seafloor is now allowing researchers to expand our understanding of the world’s largest ecosystem. Today, Johnny is still working to build a snapshot of coral reef conditions. Working with Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef and the Great Reef Census project, they are using geotagged images to give everyone — from scientists to students — a better idea of what’s going in depths of the water whether they dive in or not. 

In 2021 the Great Reef Census is expanding to reach more reefs, collect more data, and broaden its research goals. To join the efforts, sign up as a Citizen or contribute directly via the project’s fundraising page. 

Street by street: How we’re mapping air quality in Europe

Since 2015, dozens of Street View cars outfitted with pollution sensors have been cruising the roads to track air quality in cities all over the world — from Oakland to Sydney. Over the past six years, these cars have collected more than 100 million street-by-street air quality measurements, all for Project Air View — our effort to bring detailed air quality maps to scientists, policymakers and everyday people. These hyperlocal air quality measurements are helping governments and communities make more informed choices about changes that can help city residents breathe cleaner air.


In celebration of EU Green Week next week,we are sharing a new air quality map for Copenhagen and recently started working with the City of Dublin to collect air quality measurements with Aclima technology in our first-ever, all-electric Street View car. This is all part of Google’s Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE), our free tool that provides thousands of cities with actionable data and insights to reduce their emissions.


Capturing air quality in Copenhagen

In 2018, we started mapping hyperlocal air quality in Copenhagen, working closely with the City of Copenhagen and Utrecht University, in collaboration with Aarhus University. The map — which is already being put to use —  includes measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), black carbon, and ultrafine particles. Through mapping street-by-street air quality we found that Copenhagen’s major access roads have nearly three times more ultrafine particles and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and five times higher black carbon levels when compared to less trafficked residential areas.
This air quality map shows the street-by-street average of nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Utrecht University & Google, 2021.

This air quality map shows the street-by-street average of nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Utrecht University & Google, 2021.

Armed with these air quality insights, the City of Copenhagen and urban planners are working to design future neighborhoods that include “Thrive Zones.” These zones aim to build places, like schools and playgrounds, away from high-pollution zones to provide young children with access to cleaner air. The city also plans to use the air quality data to encourage more sustainable transportation and create healthier bicycle and walking routes away from car traffic.


An all-electric Street View car hits the road in Dublin

We’ve also partnered with the City of Dublin to gather hyperlocal air quality measurements in Ireland’s capital, where our first all-electric Street View vehicle, a Jaguar I-PACE, has hit the roads. This is the first time an all-electric Google Street View car is being used to capture air pollution and greenhouse gas measurements and Google Street View imagery — a feat made possible due to Jaguar Land Rover engineers integrating Google's Street View technology and specialized Aclima sensors into the vehicle.
10:25

Our Jaguar I-PACE is able to measure nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitric oxide (NO), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and ozone (O3). Aclima’s platform analyzes and quality assures pollution measurements to develop these maps.


The road ahead

Project Air View’s air quality insights will be integrated into the European Commission-funded  European Expanse project, which is exploring how pollution is impacting the health of Europeans and how hyperlocal air quality measurement efforts can inform policy development.


We also plan to equip more Street View cars with air quality mapping capabilities so that we can continue sharing hyperlocal air quality insights. By mapping air quality in more cities, we can equip people with the information they need to create more sustainable cities that protect the health of everyone.


Source: Google LatLong


We now do more computing where there’s cleaner energy

At Google, we care about the energy use of our data centers. In fact, we were the first major company to be carbon-neutral way back in 2007, and we’ve been matching 100% of our annual electricity use with renewable energy purchases since 2017. But we want to go even further. By 2030, we plan to completely decarbonize our electricity use for every hour of every day. One way we can do this is by adjusting our operations in real time so that we get the most out of the clean energy that’s already available. 

And that’s exactly what our newest milestone in carbon-intelligent computing does: Google can now shift moveable compute tasks between different data centers, based on regional hourly carbon-free energy availability. This includes both variable sources of energy such as solar and wind, as well as “always-on” carbon-free energy such as our recently announced geothermal project. This moves us closer to our goal of operating on carbon-free energy everywhere, at all times, by 2030.  

Animated GIF illustrating how Google shifts compute tasks between data centers to better use carbon-free energy, and hence minimize the fleet’s carbon footprint.

Shifting compute tasks across location is a logical progression of our first step in carbon-aware computing, which was to shift compute across time. By enabling our data centers to shift flexible tasks to different times of the day, we were able to use more electricity when carbon-free energy sources like solar and wind are plentiful. Now, with our newest update, we’re also able to shift more electricity use to where carbon-free energy is available.

The amount of computing going on at any given data center varies across the world, increasing or decreasing throughout the day. Our carbon-intelligent platform uses day-ahead predictions of how heavily a given grid will be relying on carbon-intensive energy in order to shift computing across the globe, favoring regions where there’s more carbon-free electricity. The new platform does all this while still getting everything that needs to get done, done — meaning you can keep on streaming YouTube videos, uploading Photos, finding directions or whatever else.

We’re applying this first to our media processing efforts, which encodes, analyzes and processes millions of multimedia files like videos uploaded to YouTube, Photos and Drive. Like many computing jobs at Google, these can technically run in many places (of course, limitations like privacy laws apply). Now, Google's global carbon-intelligent computing platform will increasingly reserve and use hourly compute capacity on the most clean grids available worldwide for these compute jobs — meaning it moves as much energy consumption as possible to times and places where energy is cleaner, minimizing carbon-intensive energy consumption.

Google Cloud’s developers and customers can also prioritize cleaner grids, and maximize the proportion of carbon-free energy that powers their apps by choosing regions with better carbon-free energy (CFE) scores.

To learn more, tune in to the livestream of our carbon-aware computing workshop on June 17 at 8:00 a.m PT. And for more information on our journey towards 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030, read CEO Sundar Pichai’s latest blog post.

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We now do more computing where there’s cleaner energy

At Google, we care about the energy use of our data centers. In fact, we were the first major company to be carbon-neutral way back in 2007, and we’ve been matching 100% of our annual electricity use with renewable energy purchases since 2017. But we want to go even further. By 2030, we plan to completely decarbonize our electricity use for every hour of every day. One way we can do this is by adjusting our operations in real time so that we get the most out of the clean energy that’s already available. 

And that’s exactly what our newest milestone in carbon-intelligent computing does: Google can now shift moveable compute tasks between different data centers, based on regional hourly carbon-free energy availability. This includes both variable sources of energy such as solar and wind, as well as “always-on” carbon-free energy such as our recently announced geothermal project. This moves us closer to our goal of operating on carbon-free energy everywhere, at all times, by 2030.  

Animated GIF illustrating how Google shifts compute tasks between data centers to better use carbon-free energy, and hence minimize the fleet’s carbon footprint.

Shifting compute tasks across location is a logical progression of our first step in carbon-aware computing, which was to shift compute across time. By enabling our data centers to shift flexible tasks to different times of the day, we were able to use more electricity when carbon-free energy sources like solar and wind are plentiful. Now, with our newest update, we’re also able to shift more electricity use to where carbon-free energy is available.

The amount of computing going on at any given data center varies across the world, increasing or decreasing throughout the day. Our carbon-intelligent platform uses day-ahead predictions of how heavily a given grid will be relying on carbon-intensive energy in order to shift computing across the globe, favoring regions where there’s more carbon-free electricity. The new platform does all this while still getting everything that needs to get done, done — meaning you can keep on streaming YouTube videos, uploading Photos, finding directions or whatever else.

We’re applying this first to our media processing efforts, which encodes, analyzes and processes millions of multimedia files like videos uploaded to YouTube, Photos and Drive. Like many computing jobs at Google, these can technically run in many places (of course, limitations like privacy laws apply). Now, Google's global carbon-intelligent computing platform will increasingly reserve and use hourly compute capacity on the most clean grids available worldwide for these compute jobs — meaning it moves as much energy consumption as possible to times and places where energy is cleaner, minimizing carbon-intensive energy consumption.

Google Cloud’s developers and customers can also prioritize cleaner grids, and maximize the proportion of carbon-free energy that powers their apps by choosing regions with better carbon-free energy (CFE) scores.

To learn more, tune in to the livestream of our carbon-aware computing workshop on June 17 at 8:00 a.m PT. And for more information on our journey towards 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030, read CEO Sundar Pichai’s latest blog post.

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