Operations
As our business grows, we want to minimize our impact on the world. That’s why we made the decision to become carbon neutral starting in 2007.
We’re taking a three-step approach to managing our environmental footprint.
- Design our operations to be as efficient as possible. We've built some of the world’s most efficient data centers.
- Use renewable sources of energy whenever possible
- Offset the emissions we cannot otherwise eliminate
Greening our operations is the right thing to do, and it makes business sense too—by reducing our operating costs to keep our business competitive.
Practice energy efficiency
We try to use as little energy as possible, both in our data centers and our offices.Green data centers
Data centers are large, dedicated facilities that house the computers and servers that make our services work. They also account for most of our energy needs. So from the earliest days, we have focused on designing our data centers to use as little energy as possible across the entire system. Over time, we’ve developed some of the most efficient data centers in the world. In fact, today our data centers use 50% less energy than typical facilities.
Here are some of the ways we do it:
- Calculate the performance of each facility using rigorous efficiency measurements
- Use evaporative cooling, which consumes far less energy than a traditional chiller
- Use recycled water for cooling instead of clean, potable water
- Buy highly efficient servers
- Use efficient power supplies and voltage regulators
- Recycle 100% of the electronic equipment that leaves our data centers
As a result of our efficient infrastructure, we use very little energy per Google search. For example, the carbon emissions of 850 searches on Google are comparable to those created by an average daily newspaper. Not only that, but web searches often replace more carbon-intensive activities, such as driving a car to a library. For more detailed information on our efficiency practices, visit our data center site.
Green workplaces
We’re also taking steps to make our office buildings and other facilities efficient. That means pursuing LEED certification for our offices, retrofitting our buildings to bring in more natural light, using high-efficiency lighting, and installing better building control systems. We perform extensive energy audits to understand and further reduce our electricity use. We’ve spent millions of dollars on these efforts because they save energy and pay back in only a few years.
Every day, our cafeterias strive to source locally-grown food, compost organic waste, and recycle. Thousands of Googlers commute to our headquarters on biodiesel shuttles, use our fleet of hybrid vehicles for off campus meetings, and use Google bikes to get around campus. Googlers can even rack up points for a donation to their favorite charity by walking, biking, gliding, pogo-sticking, unicycling, or otherwise finding a self-powered way to get to work.
Use renewable energy
We believe buying and using renewable energy is essential to building a clean energy future for Google and the world.
Onsite renewables
In 2007, we installed the largest U.S. corporate solar installation at the time at our Mountain View, California headquarters. Our facility produces 1.6 megawatts of electricity, enough to power approximately 1,000 California homes. The installation reduces our carbon emissions and makes business sense too: the panels will pay for themselves by 2013. We also use landfill gas in three large cogeneration units on our main campus. They generate electricity and heat while destroying methane, one of the most potent green house gases. And in India, we’ve installed solar water heating systems at two of our offices.
Renewable power purchases
We are also buying renewable energy. We have entered into a 20-year agreement to purchase renewable energy from 114 megawatts of wind generation in Iowa. Incorporating such a large amount of wind energy into our portfolio is complex (read more about how the deal is structured), but this power is enough to supply several data centers. We’re also excited about the agreement because purchasing so much energy for so long is mutually beneficial; it frees up capital for the developer to build more renewable energy projects while protecting our business from volatility in future electricity prices.
Factoring in the true cost of energy
When evaluating how to meet our energy needs, we apply a carbon price to account for the costs of emissions. This makes low-carbon energy more financially competitive and influences where we site our future data centers. It also reduces the financial risks of our energy investments and encourages us to continue focusing on efficiency.
Business as usual won’t deliver low-cost, clean, and renewable energy. That's why we're also working to find ways of making renewable energy cheaper than electricity from coal and other fossil fuels. In 2007 we launched RE<C, a Google.org initiative aimed at creating utility-scale renewable electricity at a price cheaper than coal in years, not decades.
Obtain high-quality carbon offsets
We work hard to minimize our energy use and power our operations with renewable energy whenever possible. For those emissions we cannot yet eliminate, we purchase high-quality carbon offsets.
When selecting carbon offset projects, it is critical that the reductions are “additional”—real, permanent, and wouldn’t have happened without the money we would provide. That means our investments make a real difference in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We also ensure that projects are verified by third parties to meet high-quality standards.
To date, we have selected high-quality carbon offsets from around the world that reduce greenhouse gas emissions—ranging from landfill gas projects in North Carolina and New York, to animal waste management systems in Mexico and Brazil.