Google Will Hit 100 Percent Renewable Energy This Year The company is primarily powered by wind and solar energy.
Google has announced that after 10 years a carbon-neutral company, it will be able to brag running on entirely renewable energy at the end of 2017. That means that all of the electricity the company consumes in both its data centers and offices are provided by wind and solar energy.
As exciting as this milestone is, it hardly comes as a surprise. The company first announced its intention to hit this milestone last year. It was at this point it also first claimed that it is the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world. Announced in Google’s 2017 environmental report, Google says it has created “new energy purchasing models that others can follow” and that “we’ve helped drive wide-scale global adoption of clean energy.”
In addition to being an obvious PR boon, the company says its mission of full sustainability fits in with its larger mission. (It also makes the fact that as recently as 2015 Google alone reportedly consumed as much energy as the entire city of San Francisco in a year way more palatable.)
Another peek inside the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
“We believe Google can build tools to improve people’s lives while reducing our dependence on natural resources and fossil fuels,” Google executive Urs Hölzle said in a blog post.
One step the company has recently taken in marrying its ethos of sustainability with its products is a new initiative to equip Google Street View vehicles with air quality sensors.
In addition to its goal of being run by renewable energy, Google is also working on achieving zero waste to landfill. Nearly half of the company’s 14 data centers have already reached this goal, according to Hölzle’s 2017 Google Environmental report released on Tuesday.
Google announced in July it would buy its first wind farm from Norway, Tellenes wind farm.
Google last year signed a 12-year deal to buy 100 percent of the plant’s output. The company, which has four European data centres in Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland, said the wind power will be used to supply one or several of them.
“We’ll purchase power as soon as the wind farm becomes fully operational, which we expect will take place in early September 2017,” a Google spokesman told Reuters.
If you liked this article, check out this video of a device that makes electrical energy from slow-moving water.
xGossipGoat on October 11st, 2017 at 13:31 UTC »
Meanwhile in Australia politicians are here claiming that climate change is a good thing
barghy on October 11st, 2017 at 13:22 UTC »
Exactly - happens with palm oil also.
Companies buy certificates to show they are 'buying' sustainable palm oil. In reality, they have no idea whether they have actually taken delivery of sustainable palm oil or not.
It guarantees that the sustainable companies receive this amount of cash but it's a grey area.
It helps show support whilst overcoming some of the supply chain complexities.
barghy on October 11st, 2017 at 12:56 UTC »
It would be interesting to know what scope of emissions they are including in this.
Definitely a step in the right direction, but companies can easily achieve this by outsourcing operations that contribute the most to their emissions.
These emissions are then 'out of scope' and the renewable energy requirement to do this are significantly reduced.
I'm probably being too cynical, but this is definitely a positive move!
EDIT: Just to clarify...
My point here is it's hard to judge any claim like this until there is transparency on what elements of Scope 3 emissions are included. Are they including employee transport to work? What about the logistics firms that transport their products? Scope 3 is so broad it's practically impossible to include it all, which is why it needs stating which part of their operations this includes.
This wasn't at all me putting Google down, I honestly think they are doing a better job than most (and so they should with their mission statement). Merely there needs to be a more transparent way of reporting, so we can praise/pressure companies appropriately.
Surely transparency is in Google's interests if they are leading the way?